SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - In the wake of a scathing critique of California's court bureaucracy, trial judges have targeted the General Counsel's Office within that bureaucracy as inefficient, overstaffed and out of line.
The general counsel, Mary Roberts, has been the focus of criticism over the hiring decisions and practices of her office, which allow a number of lawyers to work from home. She is also referred to indirectly by the judges who wrote last week's 221-page analysis.
"It is appropriate to question the effectiveness of the management of the Office of the General Counsel," said the report from 11 judges on the Strategic Evaluation Committee.
Not unlike the difficulty encountered by the committee in getting a fix on the overall staff size at the administrative office, the sum of lawyers working for the general counsel has proven to be a slippery and elusive figure.
In a related matter, the general counsel's office hired another lawyer earlier this year despite a hiring freeze. The new lawyer formerly worked at the same law firm as general counsel Roberts and replaces a retiring lawyer who also worked at the same firm at the same time.
The hire was made without a public posting.
In addition, as the judges' committee pointed out, the general counsel is acting as a "gatekeeper" to the governing Judicial Council taking on the role of policy maker. They recommended that the general counsel return to the role of legal advisor following a "customer service model."
But even in the traditional role of writing legal opinions, the general counsel's office came up short. The judges criticized the slow work pace, and noted that many of the staff lawyers work from home.
The judges' committee also asked for an investigation into the fact that the lawyers in the general counsel's office -- enough to make up a "powerhouse law firm" -- refuse to set foot in an actual courtroom. They outsource that work to private firms, often expensive, top-of-the-line, business litigation firms.
Hired During a Freeze
When retired Los Angeles judge Charles Horan asked recently how the new lawyer was hired, Chad Finke who directs the administrative office's court services division replied, "Rebecca Kleinman worked as an associate attorney (1989-1991) at the law firm at which Mary Roberts was a partner."
He went on to say the new lawyer was hired based on an "exemption" to the hiring freeze.
"An exemption to the AOC hiring freeze was granted in January 2012 in light of a longstanding vacant attorney position in OGC's Labor and Employment Unit and the anticipated retirement of a senior attorney in that unit. Ms. Kleinman was hired pursuant to the authorized exemption in light of her over 24 years of law practice in employment law, traditional labor law, litigation, and litigation management."
The AOC's spokesman refused to provide a resume for Kleinman, directing a reporter to make an official request for public information instead, a process that takes weeks or months.
He had the same response to a request to confirm the private firm where general counsel Roberts had worked, also referring that question to the process for requesting public information. Roberts herself returned a call to say she had worked at Corbett & Kane which later merged into Crosby Heafey Roach & May, a 200-lawyer Oakland firm.