Ethics complaint filed against Denver city attorney over hiring of former law firm

An anonymous Denver city employee has filed an ethics complaint against City Attorney Miko Brown, alleging she may have violated the Denver Code of Ethics in connection with the city's hiring of the law firm where Brown previously worked.

The complaint was filed Friday, one day after a CBS Colorado investigation reported that Denver is paying four lawyers at Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell $800 an hour to defend the city in two lawsuits filed by one current and one former City of Denver employee.

The firm has billed the city more than $850,000 in four months, despite having a one-year contract initially capped at $470,000.

The anonymous employee's complaint raises many of the same questions posed by the CBS Colorado investigation, including Brown's role in selecting Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell, whether she recommended her former firm and who negotiated and approved the firm's hourly rates.

The employee, who works in the city attorney's office, asked not to be identified and wrote in the complaint: "I fear retaliation from City Attorney Miko Brown and Mayor Michael Johnston."

The complaint asks whether Brown violated the Denver Code of Ethics by "exercising, directing, influencing, or failing to recuse from official action concerning the selection, engagement, supervision, budgeting, invoicing, payment and continued retention of Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell." It also asks: "Who negotiated and approved rates, staffing, budgets, and significant budget variances?"

Brown was a partner at Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell for 10 years, until 2017. She has declined requests for an interview with CBS but has said she did nothing wrong with the contract process and followed all Denver ordinances. Her office said Monday that Brown received no benefit from the WTO hiring.

However, Brown has not specified what role, if any, she played in selecting Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell, whether she recommended the firm be hired, whether she negotiated its hourly rates, or how the legal bills rose so quickly.

The city's contract with Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell covers a one-year period and was initially capped at $470,000. But the firm billed Denver more than $850,000 during the first four months it was on the job.

The city agreed to pay four WTO lawyers $800 an hour. One of those lawyers received her law degree just two years ago. She has billed Denver $190,000 for her work over the four month period.

David Lane, a veteran Denver lawyer, questioned the rates.

"Because there is no universe in which a second-year associate is worthy of $800 an hour. The best law firms in Denver get $400 an hour; that is absurd," Lane said.

The city contract with Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell also allows the firm to charge Denver $375 per hour for work done by paralegals. Lane said his law firm typically bills $175 an hour for paralegals.

The ethics complaint is not the only challenge to the city's decision to hire the firm.

City Council member Flor Alvidrez is questioning why Denver needed to hire outside lawyers for the two cases when the City Attorney's Office has a large contingent of attorneys.

"There's 160 city attorneys working right now," stated Alvidrez. "Why do we need to hire outside attorneys at an exorbitant rate for these two particular cases?" she asked.

Alvidrez has also questioned the $470,000 initial contract, which was below the $500,000 threshold requiring City Council approval.

"This does not pass the smell test. Passing $470,000 in months meant they knew they were going to go over the $500,000 threshold but chose to keep it below that to not have to come to council," Alvidrez said. "I need answers to understand where the money is coming from and what was the thought process behind selecting this firm and, right now, I don't have any answers."

Lane also questioned the rates being paid to the outside lawyers.

"If they're getting paid that kind of money and other firms in Denver charge half of that, inexcusable," Lane said.

Late Monday, the city attorney's spokesman issued a new statement but again did not address questions about Brown's involvement in the selection process.

"Miko has been transparent throughout this process, is confident there is no conflict," said Brown's spokesperson.

"Our goal throughout has been to ensure the city receives experienced, cost‑effective representation. We have followed our established process and have disclosed all relevant information. We also want to be clear that although a [ethics] complaint has been filed, no investigation is underway at this time," said the spokesperson.

The Denver Ethics Board is scheduled to discuss the complaint against Brown at its Sept. 9 meeting and will decide whether the complaint warrants further investigation, according to the board's executive director.