Law Department

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.

Shapiro and Olander, whose lucrative city work has been a source of controversy because of the law firm's close ties to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, is out as the principal counsel to Baltimore's economic development agency and empowerment zone.The city Law Department will handle most of the work for the Baltimore Development Corp. previously done by Shapiro and Olander, and the Empowerment Zone Management Corp. will seek to get legal work done for free, the mayor and other officials said yesterday.

THE DECISION by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to evaluate the city law department and find ways to rely less on outside legal advice comes at an opportune time. With the mayor having crushed his opposition in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, he has a chance to change the way he runs the city and attack weaknesses in his administration's past performance.City Council President Mary Pat Clarke made good mileage in her campaign against Mr. Schmoke by pointing out how extravagant the city has been in hiring legal consultants.

After months of defending the large amount of city legal work being done by private law firms, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said yesterday that he now wants to have the city's own legal staff take on more of the load again.Mr. Schmoke disclosed in late July that the city had paid nearly $18 million in taxpayer funds for legal work by private firms during the preceding 4 1/2 years, including $2 million to Shapiro and Olander, the firm of his top two political advisers.The millions spent on legal work outside the city's Law Department, which has a staff of 78 and an annual budget of $10 million, became an issue in the just-concluded Democratic mayoral primary.

Cops tell me it's common, but we'd never heard of it before. This year we heard it big-time. July 4th fireworks in Columbia, Towson and the Inner Harbor -- and probably just about everywhere else -- set off a bunch of car alarms. It was maddening, I tell you, maddening! From Federal Hill to Columbia Mall to Luskin's parking lot at Cromwell Bridge Road, vibrations from the booms tripped sensitive alarms, and the overall acoustic result was astounding -- like a P.D.Q. Bach-arranged medley of a Berg woodwind concerto mixed with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, as performed by Megadeath.

City Council President Mary Pat Clarke called on Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday to divulge all the legal fees that have been paid to a closely connected Baltimore law firm.Mrs. Clarke, who is running against the mayor in September's Democratic primary, said Baltimore taxpayers should be told exactly how much Shapiro and Olander receives for representing the city and its quasi-public agencies.Mrs. Clarke was quick to respond to a report in The Sun yesterday that revealed that Shapiro and Olander, a downtown law firm with strong ties to Mr. Schmoke, had collected at least $1.4 million for city-related legal work in the past 3 1/2 years.

With Carroll County Attorney Charles "Chuck" W. Thompson Jr. departing to head the law department for Montgomery County government, Carroll's commissioners have to make a choice. They could hire a replacement and maintain the office or turn the county's legal work over to private attorneys, as Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown has suggested. If the commissioners decide to privatize the law office, they will be making a terrible mistake.Conventional wisdom is that private industry can work more cost-effectively than government.

Hours after City Council President Mary Pat Clarke publicly criticized the mayor for allowing a tough new curfew bill to languish unsigned for nearly a month, administration officials announced yesterday that he is expected to sign the measure when he returns from vacation today.The bill -- which received final council approval June 27 -- requires children under age 17 to be off the streets by 11 p.m. weeknights and by midnight Saturday and Sunday. Police can take violators to their homes or to designated holding facilities.

If you've got a modem, you've got a lawyer. Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti has opened a branch office in cyberspace.The prestigious Baltimore-based law firm recently hung out an electronic shingle as a publisher on the Internet -- making articles by its lawyers available worldwide to users of the far-flung network of computer networks.Attorney Kenneth C. Bass III, a partner in Venable's Washington office who spearheaded the effort, says the electronic publication lets the firm showcase its talents and technological sophistication without the type of "blatant advertising" that would be contrary to the old-line firm's traditions.

Employees at the county Circuit Court were told yesterday they will be furloughed for up to five days in connection with the state budgetcrisis.Under an order from Robert C. Murphy, chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, employees were told they could select the days on which to be furloughed, as long as they are before June 30.Mary M. Rose, clerk of the county Circuit Court, said most of her90 employees earn less than $20,000 a year and will therefore be...