Law Department

The Board of Estimates narrowly approved an amendment yesterday that clears the way for a major development in Fells Point, despite votes against it by the City Council president and the city comptroller. The amendment to the Fells Point Urban Renewal Plan changed the land-use designation of a parcel at Caroline and Lancaster streets from residential and commercial to mixed use. Whitman, Requardt & Associates, an engineering firm in the 2300 block of St. Paul St., will move its headquarters to a four-story building to be erected on the site.

In a move to settle legal expenses from a federal lawsuit against the city, Baltimore's Board of Estimates approved a budget request yesterday that brings the total cost of private attorneys' fees in the case to $800,000.The city Law Department asked for $500,000 to settle expenses in a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment, which filed a complaint against the city two years ago over excessive dumping at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant and Ashburton Water Filtration Plant.

A week after approving $250,000 in legal fees to defend Baltimore public works officials, Board of Estimates members are questioning a Law Department proposal to spend $500,000 for another case.The issue has been placed on the board's "nonroutine" agenda for debate today. The city has spent $300,000 in the civil suit against the city by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment, which filed a complaint over excessive dumping at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant and Ashburton Water Filtration Plant.

City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt said yesterday that the city overpaid a police attorney $34,500 in overtime in the past three years, despite what auditors say was his ineligibility for the excess pay.Pratt raised the issue at the city Board of Estimates, while discussing a review of the contract for Gary C. May by her audit department. The former police sergeant became the Police Department's chief counsel in 1994.City auditors said the city overcompensated May from 1996 to 1999 by allowing him to earn overtime.

Heeding the city Law Department's request for help in specialized legal matters, Baltimore's top officials voted yesterday to hire three outside firms at a cost of more than $500,000, including a $100,000 retainer to former City Solicitor Neal M. Janey and another attorney.The Board of Estimates -- a five-member panel that includes the mayor, council president and comptroller -- approved the expenditures with little public discussion.The cases include a dispute about overtime for police officers and a legal tussle over water rights at the Susquehanna River.

Baltimore's deputy comptroller, Shirley A. Williams, has taken an administrative job with the city Law Department and is being replaced by B. Harriette Taylor, the acting director of the Legal Aid Bureau.Williams, a longtime city employee who was acting city comptroller for nearly two years after Jacqueline F. McLean resigned in a corruption scandal in 1994, will head the Law Department's new management division. Her responsibilities will include overseeing the budget and directing the Equal Opportunity Compliance Office.

William I. Weston, a University of Baltimore law professor known among local attorneys for his sharp-tongued advocacy of causes ranging from mandatory continuing legal education to attorney discipline, plans to leave the law school next year to join a new school in Jacksonville, Fla.Mr. Weston will become associate dean of Florida Coastal Law School in May 1997, ending 22 years on the UB faculty.The lure of the new job is Florida Coastal's unusual curriculum, Mr. Weston said, one that will give greater emphasis practical lawyering skills and less to traditional academic teachings.

Two announcements this past week indicate City Hall is heeding the public's call to reduce the amount of legal work it farms out to non-staff lawyers. The Baltimore Development Corp. said the Shapiro and Olander firm would no longer handle its legal affairs and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said the Law Department would install a computer accounting system to keep better track of the work being done by city attorneys.The mayor issued a report earlier this year that showed more than $17 million had been paid by the city to private lawyers since 1991.

In an attempt to find new ways to reduce Baltimore's reliance on private law firms, the city Law Department is starting a computerized accounting system to keep better track of the cost of city-related legal work.The city's 79 lawyers will be required to account for their work by the hour to measure the department's efficiency and determine how much additional legal work it can handle that is now being done by outside firms.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said yesterday that better accounting would help the city come up with ways to save money.