Denver is facing a $200 million budget deficit in 2026 and has laid off 169 city workers, cut city services and left hundreds of city jobs unfilled because of the budget squeeze. At the same time, a CBS Colorado investigation has found the Denver City Attorney's Office has been paying four lawyers at an outside law firm as much as $800 an hour to defend the city in two employee lawsuits — including one lawyer who graduated from law school just two years ago. Denver is also paying paralegals at the law firm $375 an hour.
"That's outrageous," said Pete Schulte, who serves as city attorney in Aurora.
"I could never approve $800 an hour for outside counsel. It's just unconscionable for tax dollars," said Schulte.
CBS Colorado found that Denver has now been billed $852,000 in just four months by the Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell law firm for the two cases, nearly twice the $470,000 cap contained in the city's contract with the firm. The contract was supposed to cover one year of legal work.
The spending is raising questions about Denver's decision to hire outside lawyers for the cases, its decision to agree to the firm's hourly rates and how quickly the legal bills have exceeded the amount the city originally agreed to pay.
But Denver City Attorney Miko Brown says the prominent Denver firm was selected after four law firms "pitched" for the work, that the selection by her internal panel was unanimous and that WTO has already achieved favorable results for Denver in previous cases.
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