Monday, November 26, 2012

City lawyers - Glen J. Torcivia

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Glen J. Torcivia is getting around--
Lake Worth's City Attorney

Wellington just fired its attorney for the past 10 years, Jeff Kurtz...it was "not working out" three commissioners said---too slow in getting information, etc. Kurtz and his firm were under contract; he was not a paid employee. When you get hit with a lot of law suits, philosophies change and governments are pressured to settle cases. Changing out legal counsel and finding one with the same mindset is sometimes a solution. No fuss; No muss. Getting timely advice, however, is a requisite as issues come up all of the time.

The difference in Lake Worth and Wellington firing their attorney is that it had been presumed that Lake Worth's politicians already had it planned out to terminate our staff lawyer as soon as it got the majority. City Manager Bornstein did not have enough time to evaluate her knowledge, experience or worth. She had been with us for about the same number of years that Kurtz was with Wellington and familiar with all of our legal issues.

Wellington, on the other hand, is hiring an interim city attorney. It will also be hiring a consultant to advise and assess whether or not it is more cost efficient to contract out legal services or hire their own in-house counsel. Over a ten year period, they should be able to collect some meaningful data.

Jeff Kurtz, the guy they just fired, is a partner with the law firm of Glen J.Torcivia. In the meantime, guess who will be Wellington's interim attorney until they figure out what they want to do.  Glen J. Torcivia.  Maybe their commission meetings are on a different night than ours. If you recall, he and his firm replaced Elaine Humphreys as Lake Worth's counsel for an interim period of six months in order to allow the Commission to evaluate whether or not we hire our own city attorney who would be an employee or stay with an outside firm for our legal answers. His contract should be coming up in a few months. Maybe we'll hear about it.

At the moment, Torcivia's claim to fame for Lake Worth is the Greater Bay settlement. We know how that went. Hopefully, Lake Worth's analysis on "should we or shouldn't we" hire our own employee or stay with contractual legal advice has been on-going and it doesn't take us 10 years to figure it all out. Sometimes it's all a matter of the Commission majority and who is in charge.

Perhaps when Wellington finishes its study, we all can compare notes.

9 comments:

  1. In the words of Glen Torcivia"gee, if we go to court we might lose".Who in the hell wants a weenie like that representing them? Oh yeah, Lake Worth does.
    " Jeff Kurtz, the guy they just fired, is a partner with the law firm of Glen J.Torcivia. In the meantime, guess who will be Wellington's interim attorney until they figure out what they want to do. Glen J. Torcivia." Okay,does anybody else see a slight conflict of interest there?

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  2. Glen baby, you said LW had less than a 50/50 chance. Not a very good cheerleader here. You said that based on?

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  3. Didn't Elaine quit? And the Asst City Attorney? They certainly didn't fire her. Sounds like they are doing the same thing as Wellington. I was at the meeting when they discussed the case. It sounds like they could have potentially drawn up at least that much in bills fighting the case....and them they would have had no chance to collect at all--even court costs...because they are out of business.... It was a rotten thing that they settled, but they cut their potential losses.... of possible 5-20 million if htey wnet to court.....plus another 80k in legal fees.... It sucks all around, but at least its over...

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  4. Yes, it was said Elaine resigned. She is under a confidentiality agreement so we can't learn the facts. Everyone now saves face. And agreed--at least Willard is off our beach. Bye, bye. Next, we need to retain a different outside legal firm in the future...start reading contracts...start doing our due diligence...start understanding the consequences of our actions before we sign on dotted lines, etc., etc. it ain't play money.

    Also, to think that we have to stay in a crappy contract is ludicrous. It would have been much more costly if we had.

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  5. Was it Glen J. Torcivia that stated publicly that your blog was one of the major reasons the city was going to lose the case or was it the other attorney, Ciklin?

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  6. It was neither one, anonymous. I am sure that they will be very careful here.

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  7. Anony you are still believing joslyn on his closing arguments to settle? haha He looked like a homeless person,not a fancy lawyer.

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  8. Melissa Anderson did leave on her own accord. Jean Middleton did not. Nor did Elaine Humphreys.

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  9. Ask Scott. Didn't he want everyone fired? Looks like the HR guy fell through the cracks. Can't fire him, huh?

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