LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County is losing too many attorneys and prosecutors for better-paying private law firms and corporate jobs, and Louisville Metro Council members need to boost starting salaries to keep them, their superiors say.
Younger, newly hired attorneys whose duties included defending indigent residents or representing the county in litigation are starting at $45,000 a year.
And in a competitive labor market, that pay rate is not cutting it for numerous employees with law degrees and, in some cases, a fair amount of student debt, county leaders say.
"Most of the time, our employees are telling us they don’t want to leave but that they can’t afford to stay," Ingrid Geiser, first assistant to Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell, said Wednesday during her office's budget hearing in Metro Council chambers.
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One prosecutor, for example, said they needed to put $200 each month on their credit cards to pay their bills, Geiser said.
The Jefferson County Attorney's Office, which handles civil, criminal and child support cases, has 265 employees, 107 of whom are attorneys, Geiser said.
The criminal division has seen a 47% decrease in attorneys since March 2021. Geiser told The Courier Journal, "we have been replacing the prosecutors who have left for other opportunities."
The county attorney's office staff have left for higher-paying jobs at places like the Jefferson...
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