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Date: 7/19/2022
HADLEY – The Hadley Select Board interviewed three town counsel candidates from law firms Mead, Talerman and Costa, Dupere Law Offices, and Miyares and Harrington LLP at its meeting on July 12 to replace the town’s current firm, KP Law.
Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan said that the town was not upset with KP Law’s work, but she thought that it was a good time to look at other options and potentially save money.
“We wanted to start to see what the rates were out there for other legal counsels because our budget, we have a $20 million budget, but we really have a low tax rate and we want to keep taxes low so we’re always looking at every area,” Brennan said. “I’m not going to say it was only cost savings, it’s just that we had KP Law for about 20 years and I think it was just time for, with different people on the boards, I knew to say ‘Let’s see what’s out there.’ It was not that we weren’t happy and really, this is something we should do with all of our vendors.”
In their opening remarks, partners from each firm emphasized accessibility and the dedication to having clear lines of communication with their clients and being prompt with answering urgent questions or concerns from the municipalities.
Lisa Mead, partner and co-founder of Mead, Talerman and Costa, said she started the firm in 2004 and has experience as an elected official. Mead presented information about the firm with another partner and the leader of the labor and employment division, Kate Feodoroff, saying that they have 12 attorneys covering 25 municipalities. Their offices are located in Newburyport, Millis and New Bedford, and Mead said they do “everything” for towns including contracting, litigation, labor and land use.
“Our goal in setting up this firm was to provide town counsel services to municipalities in Massachusetts so that we are more of service on a regular basis to municipalities, putting the counsel back in town council and to be available to help prevent problems before they arise and to open lines of communication with our clients,” Mead said. “Many of our attorneys have also served on municipal boards as well, we have a current school committee member, conservation commission member, Jay [Talerman] is the moderator in his town. We think it brings a unique perspective for us to be working with our communities and we think that adds a bonus to our communities as they make their decisions moving forward.”
Despite having offices on the eastern side of the state, Mead said Hadley would only be charged one hour of travel time for any in-person meetings and said that Zoom has helped eliminate some of that cost as well. They represent South Hadley and Deerfield and said they have dealt with transitioning towns from KP Law multiple times. Mead said KP Law has always been very professional and that she was confident Hadley would be a smooth transition.
Mead said her firm as seen “steady and measured growth” since 2004. She said the partners and associates like to stay busy, but that they are never afraid to add more staff when needed to avoid being overworked.
Select Board Chair Jane Nevinsmith asked Mead and Feodoroff what the most prominent legal challenges facing Hadley were. Mead said she didn’t know specifically what the town is faced with in terms of legal challenges but said some of the bigger issues facing all similar communities involve how municipalities manage development with the residential tax base and what effects commercial and residential development have on the pressures on the community. Feodoroff focused on police reform.
“From a labor and employment perspective, everyone knows the hot topic is POST [Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training] and how you’re managing police reform in your town,” Feodoroff said. “So do you do body cameras, do you have any certification issues, things like that which all have to be bargained. It can be tricky; police retention is pretty globally difficult at this point.
“I would say if you looked at the partners versus associates, we have six partners and six associates so it’s pretty egalitarian in our firm. But when we know we need to bring more people on to service the clients that we have, we do it. We’re not afraid to do it at all.”
The board then interviewed Russell Dupere from his family-owned firm. Dupere said that his firm has always focused only on school law and labor law. Dupere said the benefit of their practice is that all the firm’s attorneys only focus on those areas. However, the board saw this as a disadvantage and eliminated his firm from contention during the discussion period following the interviews.
Miyares and Harrington was the final candidate and represented by Donna Brewer, Alexandra Ruben and Chris Brown, who would be the main team working with Hadley. They have a firm of 13 lawyers and represent 13 towns, some of which are “very similar to Hadley in size and organization,” according to Ruben.
“We have been exclusively a municipal law firm since 1988,” Brewer said. “I’ve been practicing law for 40 years and doing municipal law for 24. We are a full-range municipal law firm, we do everything except we wouldn’t do bond counsel work, that’s always separate, but we do labor, employment, litigation, all the ordinary applications you would want your municipal lawyer to do.”
Brewer said that she recognizes Hadley’s issues as a town with a major state highway in the community as well as trying to “keep the neighborhood feel that you want for your community.” Brewer said the issues facing Hadley are likely the same they are seeing in a lot of towns right now, such as environmental issues, energy issues and affordable housing.
After agreeing they wanted a firm that could handle all issues to simplify and mitigate cost, the board collectively leaned toward selecting Mead, Talerman and Costa. They said that they were all qualified and professional but agreed that Mead seemed to have a better grip on Hadley’s community and their needs.
“Mostly what I liked about them was the presentation, it was really well thought out and I think they addressed in their opening remarks many of the questions that we would logically already have,” said Select Board member Molly Keegan. “The fact that they’ve already done several transitions from KP Law, I think that’s beneficial as well because they know the right questions to ask and I feel like that would go a little bit more smoothly.”
“I felt more comfortable with the first group,” Nevinsmith said. “They somehow were more prepared and more comfortable with their answers even. I like the idea that they would do a flat travel rate of one hour, their rates for their partners are $45 an hour less than the second group, that’s almost 20 percent. I think that’s a significant number and I think we should look at that.”
A final decision will be made after Brennan checks with the firm’s references and municipalities. The board said they wanted Brennan to ask how the firm handled its introduction to the town, what their response time was on average and that the billing was fair and consistent.