legal representation

Philadelphia attorney Daniel-Paul Alva, winner of the bid to start a new Office of Conflict Counsel in Philadelphia, said in an interview today that he is looking forward to proving “detractors” wrong.

The city announced its intention Tuesday, December 31, to contract with Alva & Associates to start a for-profit law firm from scratch to represent criminal defendants and family court defendants when the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Community Legal Services or the Support Center for Child Advocates is already representing another person in the case.

The firm will do the work for $9.5 million, which is what the firm bid, Alva said.

The firm will handle the first appointments in criminal cases and juvenile-delinquent cases in which the Defender Association has a conflict, and the firm will represent the primary caregiver in every dependency case, Alva said. The firm will take all new appointments starting March 1.

While the firm will be for-profit, “I did not expect to make one cent of profit” from city funds, Alva said. “No one is going to accuse myself or my firm of pocketing profit” at the expense of quality legal representation.

The new office won't make a profit from city tax dollars, Alva said, but from fees earned by referring clients' cases in other types of matters.

Through those referrals, the firm could help achieve the goal of “Civil Gideon,” a movement in recent years to expand legal representation for civil legal matters involving fundamental needs like custody of children or housing, Alva argued.

Karen Williams, an attorney who does court-appointed work, said in an email sent on behalf of other court-appointed counsel and herself that Mayor Michael A. Nutter's administration “has chosen to disregard the constitutional rights of an already disadvantaged clientele by substituting a conscientious corps of skilled attorneys -- who are, in essence, 'pro bono' – for those bound by the 'bottom line.' Rather than increase compensation for counsel who have labored long, hard and faithfully (even when not paid),” ineffective counsel will ensue.

Councilman Dennis O'Brien also opposes the plan. Funding a new law firm just at $9.5 million is not enough money, O'Brien said. If the system is "underfunded, criminal cases, even death penalty and homicide cases, are going to be dismissed under the speedy trial rule," he predicted.

And "when the system crashes and burns and we can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again, all the lawyers that were doing this [legal work] will have gone elsewhere," O'Brien said.

The standard of representation will improve upon the current model in which individual attorneys, often solo practitioners, are appointed by the court, Alva counter-argues. Attorneys working for his firm will be able to be more efficient than the current model in which there are “300 lawyers running from room-to-room and for the most part not getting in the rooms they need to be because they can't be in more places than one,” Alva said. There also will be oversight of legal work, and the firm will provide social workers and social services to clients, he said.

The First Judicial District has been cooperative, including agreeing to concentrate the firm's cases in certain courtrooms and on certain days, Alva said.

Some lawyers working for the firm will keep their own part-time practices, and their overhead will be paid for by Alva's new firm, he said. In return, they will pay a percentage of their profits from their other legal work in exchange for Alva covering their overhead, he said.

Alva, founder of the four-member Alva & Associates law firm, and Scott DiClaudio, who also has his own firm, originally submitted the plan. DiClaudio resigned from the project following social-media postings he made.

There were four other bidders for the contract: Ahmad & Zaffarese & Smyler, AskPhillyLawyer.com, Montoya Shaffer and Sokolow & Associates, according to the city's notice.

While Alva & Associates was not the lowest bidder, the city states in its notice that Alva & Associates would provide "superior quality, efficiency and fitness" as well as "superior ability or capacity to meet particular requirements of contract and needs of City Department and those it serves."

(Cross-posted from Philadelphia City Paper: http://citypaper.net/article.php?City-Councilman-pushes-back-on-proposed-Office-of-Conflict-Counsel-16885)

A City Councilman is pushing back on a plan by Mayor Nutter's administration to change how court-appointed lawyers are provided to poor Philadelphians through a new Office of Conflict Counsel.

Councilman Dennis O'Brien said in an interview today that he was planning to introduce two pieces of legislation that would provide better accountability for the proposed office. Unlike some other city contracts, O'Brien said, legal services for the poor involve Constitutional rights.

"This model does not guarantee that Constitutional rights are protected," the councilman said. "That is our mission, and we are committed to it."

The city is contemplating contracting with an ex-prosecutor who would set up a new private law firm to handle the legal representation of Philadelphians involved in family-court cases or in criminal cases when the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Community Legal Services or the Support Center for Child Advocates is already representing another person in the case.

One of O'Brien's proposed bills would require the appointment of a quality-control auditor to ensure the legal representation "is living up to national ABA [American Bar Association] standards," an O'Brien aide, Miriam Enriquez, said in a joint interview. According to the draft ordinance, the auditor would be independent of the law firm, have been practicing law for at least seven years, and an expert in indigent defense. The managing director, who works for the mayor, would nominate the quality control auditor.

The ordinance also would require a detailed audit of the allocation of city taxpayers' dollars to the law firm and how the money was spent. Disclosure of the "job titles, job descriptions, resumes and performance reviews of all owners, employees and any other person that has a financial stake in the contract" would also be required, according to the draft legislation.

A second bill would ask Philadelphia voters to approve a change to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter (once approved by City Council) next May. If enacted, the charter amendment would require City Council approval of every contract involving the expenditure of $100,000 or more on legal representation for poor Philadelphians. Currently, contracts that are for less than one year, at any amount, don't need City Council approval.

Mark McDonald, Nutter's press secretary, declined to comment because the legislation has not yet been introduced.

O'Brien's chief of staff, Matthew Braden, said that the legislation was being introduced because Nutter and his chief of staff, Everett Gillison, did not seem willing to alter course on the conflict counsel contract after a meeting with O'Brien and his aides last month

The meeting was held after City Council convened a hearing in October on the plan to go to the new model