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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1828 Appointing Witt, Hicklin, Snider and Fain, P.C. as Special Legal Counsel BILL NO. 2022-005 ORDINANCE NO. / D,g AN ORDINANCE APPOINTING WITT, HICKLIN, SNIDER AND FAIN, P.C. AS SPECIAL LEGAL COUNSEL WHEREAS, Section 79.230 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri provides that the Mayor and Board of Aldermen may employ special counsel by ordinance. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE, MISSOURI, as follows: SECTION 1 —APPOINTMENT. That Witt, Hicklin, Snider and Fain, P.C. is hereby employed as special legal counsel for the City of Riverside, and the Mayor is hereby authorized to execute the attached engagement letter agreement on behalf of the City. SECTION 2 — FURTHER AUTHORIZATION. That the City Administrator and such other officials of the City may execute any other additional documents or take such other actions as are necessary, incidental or expedient to carry out the intent of the agreement approved and the authority granted herein. SECTION 3 — EFFECTIVE DATE. That this ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the date of its passage and approval. BE IT REMEMBERED that the above was read two times by heading only, PASSED AND APPROVED by a majority of the Board of Aldermen and APPROVED by the Mayor of the City of Riverside this /s day of Pi _ , 2022. . --. yor Kathleen L. Rose ATTES I'( # Robin'Kineai i 'ty-Clerk WITT9 HICKLIN9 SNIDER & FAIN, P.C. ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW JENNIFER M.SNIDER P.O. BOX 1517 FACSIMILE 1816)858-3009 JENNIFER M. FAIN PLAI'I'L CITY. MISSOURI JULIANN W.GRAVES.SENIOR ASSOCIATE 64079 KEITH W.HICKLIN.OF COUNSEL JASON A.DORREL.ASSOCIATE February 22, 2022 SENT VIA EMAIL ONLY: pcampo@publiclawfirm.com City of Riverside Mayor Kathy Rose c/o Attorney Paul Campo 2950 NW Vivion Road Re: Engagement Letter—City of Riverside Riverside, MO 64150 Dear Mayor Rose: In establishing the attorney-client relationship, we believe that it is good practice to set forth in some detail, for future reference from time to time, our mutual understanding as to the scope of our representation and the terms of our employment. While most of the matters covered in this letter will never be relevant or of concern between us, we want to try to make communication clear and complete from the inception of this engagement, and to anticipate and resolve questions before they arise. Also, we believe that because the performance of our services may require your joint effort and cooperation, the better our mutual understanding of our respective roles, responsibilities and contributions, the more efficient, effective and economical our work for you can be. Scope of Engagement We understand that while we may be engaged on other matters in the future, our present engagement is limited to representation of the City of Riverside with a landlord/tenant eviction issue against Kurt and Stephanie Eckard and to serve as hearing officer in a due process hearing for a terminated police officer. We understand that the City of Riverside is our client. We expect that most of our contact regarding this matter will be through you and we will keep you informed about the advice and other legal services we provide. Unless you advise otherwise, we will send all bills to you. 2 Termination of Representation It is agreed that the attorney-client relationship will be considered terminated upon our completion of the services that you have retained us to perform under this engagement. If you retain us to perform further or additional services, our attorney-client relationship will be revised subject to our agreement at that time. Your Legal File You are entitled, upon written request, to any files in our possession relating to the legal services performed by us for you in this matter(excluding our internal accounting records and other documents not reasonably necessary to your representation), subject to our right to make copies of any files withdrawn by you. Under our document retention policy, upon the completion of this matter any original documents delivered to us by you will be returned to you and a copy of your legal file will be retained in electronic format unless you specifically request otherwise. If you would prefer that we retain your file in paper form or that the paper form of your file be delivered to you, please let us know at this time or within thirty (30) days after your matter is concluded. If you have not made either of these requests, the paper form of your file may be destroyed after it has been saved in an electronic format. Our document retention policy further provides that your legal file in any form may be destroyed six (6) years after the matter is closed, unless you affirmatively make other arrangements with us. Email Communications If you have provided to our office an email address, you understand that receiving communication via this medium, and the confidentiality of such communications, cannot be guaranteed. You are notified that electronic mail is not secure, any electronic mail sent to or received by you may be exposed to multiple computers and/or users in transit, and interception during transit by improper access may occur. By providing your email address to this office, you consent to and agree to receive communications from this office via email. Supervision and Delegation Attorney Jennifer Snider and I will be the attorneys who will coordinate and oversee the services we perform on your behalf and others may assist us. We routinely delegate selected responsibilities to other persons in our firm when, because of special experience, time availability or other reasons, they are in a better position to carry them out. Additionally, we will try, when feasible, to delegate tasks to persons who can properly perform them at the least cost to you, including the use of paralegals when appropriate. 3 Financial Arrangements I am enclosing a Terms of Representation memorandum that outlines the terms of our engagement. Please read the memorandum carefully so that you will fully understand the financial commitments you are making. With respect to the hourly rates referred to in the Terms of Representation memorandum, Jennifer Snider's hourly rate is $200.00, Jennifer Fain's hourly rate is $200.00, Julie Grave's rate is $200.00 and Jason Dorrel's hourly rate is $150.00. Paralegal services performed will be billed at the rate of$75.00 per hour. If anything in the financial arrangements presents a problem to you, or is unclear, please advise me promptly so that we may discuss it and reach a full understanding. Acceptance of Terms of Engagement If this engagement and the accompanying Terms of Representation correctly set forth our mutual understanding, please sign a copy of this Letter and return it to our office for our file. We are pleased to serve as your counsel and to have you as a client, and we look forward to a mutually satisfactory and beneficial relationship. Our effectiveness and your best interests are enhanced by an atmosphere of candor and confidence between us, not only as to the facts and circumstances of the legal issues on which we are working, but also with the client-attorney relationship. Please feel free to discuss with us any question or concern you might have about either. Thank you for allowing us to represent you in this matter. Yours very truly, /s/Jennifer M. Fain Jennifer M. Fain Enc. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT TERMS OF REPRESENTATION Confirmation of Services. Witt, Hicklin, Snider & Fain, P.C. is pleased to have this opportunity to serve you. If what is set forth in the accompanying letter or in these Terms of Representation does not accurately describe your understanding of the services we are to perform or the terms for billing fees and expenses, please advise the attorney sending you the letter. Billing and Hourly Rates. Our fees are based primarily on our time spent on your file, and for expenses we have incurred relating to your file. Unless we agree on a different fee arrangement, we generally bill for professional services on an hourly basis. Each attorney and other professional in the firm has an hourly billing rate that is based on that individual's expertise and experience. Our fee rates are periodically adjusted, and bills for our fees will reflect these adjustments. Hourly time charges will reflect the time spent on your matter, including, as appropriate, litigation, due diligence investigation, legal research, document drafting, transaction closing and travel in connection with this representation. However, we do not charge for attorney administrative time or for time spent in maintaining a general, current knowledge of the law. Additionally, we bill on a per-item basis for computerized research (Westlaw services, Dun& Bradstreet, etc.), filing fees and related court or county expenses, delivery charges, special database storage when established at your request and travel expenses. Unless there are circumstances which prompt a different schedule, each month you will receive a computer-generated statement showing a description of the services performed for the prior thirty(30) days and itemizing expenses paid by us for work on your matter. Fees Not Contingent and Due Within Thirty(30) Days. Our fees are not contingent unless specified as such in the engagement letter, and payment is due within thirty(30) days of the receipt of the statement. If the firm has not received any comment about the statement within thirty(30) days of its mailing, we will assume that you find it acceptable. As a means of encouraging timely payment of our statements, we reserve the right to add a late charge of 1.5% per month to bills that are past due, i.e., statements that remain unpaid for more than thirty (30) days. Payment is to be made by check or credit card payable to "Witt, Hicklin, Snider & Fain, P.C." If any of our statements remain unpaid for more than thirty(30) days, we may, consistent with our ethical and court-imposed obligations, cease to perform services until satisfactory arrangements are made for the payment of the unpaid statements and future fees. In fairness to our many clients who promptly pay their statements each month, we reserve the right to take appropriate action with respect to delinquent accounts. Attorney Client Communication. Our statements generally contain information protected by the attorney-client privilege. As the privilege could be deemed waived if someone other than the client sees the privileged material, we recommend that you keep all of our statements in a separate file marked "Attorney-Client Privileged Materials", and keep the file in a secure place. Payment of Third-Party Expenses. The firm prefers that you directly pay any significant outside expense items related to your file and, when possible, we will direct such expenses to you for payment. Therefore, we may ask vendors to bill clients directly rather than having us incur the expense and then including the amount on our statement. Termination of Services and Representations. You may terminate our services at any time. Termination of our representation does not, however, relieve you from the responsibility of paying those fees and expenses incurred through the date we were notified of such termination. Similarly, we may withdraw from this representation for a number of reasons, including failure to promptly pay the amounts indicated in our statements; failure to disclose all facts material to our representation; failure to act in accordance with our advice; or development of one or more circumstances which, in our judgment, impair our ability to maintain an effective attorney-client relationship. Goal of Witt, Hicklin, Snider & Fain, P.C. The goal of Witt, Hicklin, Snider & Fain, P.C. is to provide the highest quality legal services in a timely manner with an unparalleled emphasis on client service. We trust you will find that we are not only available and responsive, but that we will also work diligently to meet your needs and deadlines. Accordingly, we encourage you to contact the attorney who signed the accompanying letter at any time or any other person working on this matter. Questions or Additional Information. We hope this explanation will be helpful to you and we invite you to feel free to discuss any concern with us at any time or to inquire about the fees or costs incurred. It is extremely important that we proceed with a clear and satisfactory understanding about the work to be performed. We will strive to keep you fully informed during the course of this engagement and anticipate that you, likewise, will keep us informed of pertinent developments. 2