South Florida Lawyers: Now Hiring! Musing on the Palmetto Bay search for new counsel - as does SDM and the Miami Herald

South Florida Lawyers: Now Hiring!

The South Florida Lawyers Blog  muses on what the writer(s) term the jockeying among the legal elite to win municipal business. And now, for the second time this year, Palmetto Bay is searching for The Best that money can buy, to represent the Village. You can read about it here.

The competition is stiff, however, because Gray Rob attorney John Herin, Jr. has been on the job for a month on an interim basis. So far, no firms have applied. But that won't last, what with the Village paying $185 per hour.

The question I have been asked is whether this is an open and honest search or simply a beauty pageant to justify hiring of a preselected insider?  I can't get through a typical day in court or at a legal event without being asked. So many firms are looking for business, but no one wants to apply merely to serve as fodder to justify the hire of another. Significant time goes in to the preparation of a proposal as well as preparing for and participating in a public interview.  Time is too valuable to spend on a snipe hunt.

South Dade Matters (SDM) recently raised the same issue in: Bonus Post: Why don’t local law firms want to represent Palmetto Bay? Asking: Why is it, then, that our little village ain’t attracting flies? Perhaps qualified firms are conflicted out? Or maybe other firms think Gray Robinson has an inside track and they don’t want to waste time on applying for a closed deal?

SDM Says: Some or all of the above reasons are probably at play here, but SDM can’t shake the feeling that the qualified law firms in the area are looking at Palmetto Bay as an unstable government. Certainly, Palmetto Bay’s Mayor doesn’t offer much to allay those concerns.