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Spending millions on legal advice How the St. Louis school board's reliance on lawyers has affected the bottom line(St. Louis Post-Dispatch (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 23--Last week, the St. Louis Public Schools quietly replaced their longtime lawyer. Kenneth Brostron shepherded the district through desegregation, labor strife, political turmoil and countless lawsuits. For his efforts, Brostron's firm, Lashly & Baer, was handsomely compensated. In the last four years alone, records show that the St. Louis Public Schools have spent almost $11 million on legal services, a figure that works out, on average, to roughly $75 per student a year. Most of that went to Brostron and his law firm. That per-student average is twice, or even 10 times, what legal fees cost taxpayers in school districts across the country. Brostron, 58, and his law firm have had a virtual monopoly in the district since the mid-1970s. Billing statements and interviews show just how highly district leaders thought of Lashly & Baer's experience and expertise. Some called the law firm regularly -- even several times a day. "They were tough. They knew their stuff," said Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr., a former School Board member and St. Louis mayor. "They pretty much understood the system inside and out." As in many urban districts, the lawyers became the institutional memory in a district that chewed up board members and administrators every year, leaders and experts said. But that also caused controversy. "The most powerful person sitting at the table is legal counsel," said Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri Historical Society and a former board member. "And that's probably not appropriate. No, not probably -- that's not appropriate." Brostron says no one criticized him to his face. And he didn't even bill the district for every minute spent on the phone with leaders. "We probably deserved to be paid more," he said. But he knew the district's financial problems. Now Brostron's time is done. With little fanfare, the Special Administrative Board overseeing the district replaced Lashly & Baer last week with an in-house general counsel who will be paid a flat fee of $100,000 a year to dispense day-to-day legal advice. Even so, Brostron will be in Cole County Circuit Court on Tuesday, presenting the elected School Board's challenge to the state intervention that ceded control of the district to the administrative board this summer. Brostron said he would argue that, at the very least, the two boards should share power. He and his clients say he is being paid from a private fund. FINANCIAL PROBLEMS In December, even as the elected School Board bickered over the prospect of state intervention, an advisory committee reviewed the district's checkbook. The district, it said, had overspent by $96 million over five years and was at that point $30 million in the hole. Legal fees can hardly be blamed for the deficit. Last year, Lashly & Baer's bills didn't even represent 1 percent of the district's $350 million budget. But they didn't help. In three of the last four years, the district has blown its legal services budget by several thousand dollars. Last year, the district set aside $1.8 million for lawyers. It spent $2.8 million on legal fees. At the same time, the district bought just $236,000 worth of library books. District officials say the overspending is partly because St. Louis administers its own special education program, unlike St. Louis County districts, which rely on the Special School District. While the fees Lashly & Baer charged -- from $140 to $250 an hour, depending on the lawyer -- were similar to those of other law firms that do similar work, the district did not regularly bid out the services or look for lower fees. The most recent document outlining the services the firm would provide to the district was a 1997 letter to the School Board president. It did not delineate fees. Other similarly sized districts questioned why, until last week, the St. Louis schools hadn't hired an in-house lawyer to handle day-to-day legal questions about such things as board meetings, personnel issues and policy. "I'm surprised," said Kansas City School Board President David Smith. "It would seem, a district of that size, with the issues they have to deal with, they'd hire in-house." He said Kansas City legal bills peaked this past year at roughly $4 million, at least a million more than the year before, after the staff attorney left and the board had to use outside counsel exclusively. Now, Smith said, the district is trying to cut outside law firms entirely. They've hired an extra staff lawyer this year. Starting Oct. 1, Allen Boston will handle similar duties in St. Louis. Rick Sullivan, the district's chief executive officer, said Brostron's legal challenge of the appointed board -- and not money -- sparked the decision to replace Lashly & Baer. The firm will continue to represent the district in existing cases and could be retained for future legal matters as well, Sullivan said. The district has budgeted $1.6 million for legal fees this year. MANY PHONE CALLS Sullivan hopes having a lawyer in-house will save the schools money. Lashly & Baer billing statements show that district leaders called the firm time and again for advice on meeting agendas, hiring practices, filing paperwork, board officer elections and the effects of pending legislation. When board members wanted advice, they called the firm. When board business became contentious, members called Brostron. And if they just wanted to sideline board business for awhile, they could refer it to Lashly & Baer. For instance, in the winter of 2006, then-board president Veronica O'Brien said, the elected school board was so deeply divided that she contacted Brostron on nearly every issue. "I talk to him all the time, 24 hours a day," O'Brien said then. "I use him for everything." Over a three-day period in November, her name appears six times on the billing statements, connected to more than $6,500 in charges, including one listing for "multiple telephone conferences with Ms. O'Brien regarding records." O'Brien recognized that the phone calls from various staff members were taking a financial toll. "We're our own worst enemy," she said at the time. A CAREER COUNSELOR No other lawyer could know the district like Brostron did, O'Brien said. He began working on city school cases even before he finished law school, 35 years ago. He joined the firm in 1974. By 1981, he was the district's primary legal counsel. Over the years, Brostron had a hand in nearly every major local school law case. He argued against collective bargaining for teachers in 1975 and won. He played a leading role in the federal desegregation case in St. Louis. He also was instrumental in settling the case in 1999. This year, he joined districts from around the state in an unsuccessful bid to overhaul Missouri's school funding formula. Brostron begrudgingly agrees with those who call him a major force in the district. And he suspects his longevity and power are what got him removed. Last week, from his home in Chesterfield, he said he would miss the work, despite the politics, the long days and the frantic phone calls accompanying the start of school each August. "I am very melancholy," he said. "It's been a long time." [email protected] -- 314-340-8172 [email protected] -- 314-340-8411 To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com. Copyright (c) 2007, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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