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105 L.'l..W OFYICES MCGINNIS, LOCHRIDGE & KILGORE, LLP. 1300 CAPITOL CENTER HOUSTON, TEXAS OF"F"ICE 919 CONGRESS AVENUE AUSTIN, TEXAS OF"F"ICE 3200 ONE HOUSTON CENTER AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701 (512) 49S - 6000 1221 McKINNEY STREET F"AX (SI2) 49S-6093 HOUSTON, TEXAS 77010 - (713) 615' 8500 WRITER'S DIRECT DI NUMBER: F"AX (713) 615-8585 (512~ iJP! 7- June 17, 1996 /~ '\~ -- . Jå?,^ ",~ ~ Vd '<.r-..' '... ¿" !.----- >~~';) ~ ~ i ~ ~\ \ ,-(\\.," ::->~ . --':. \ ",.(' --:> \ I' PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL (----, ~\:i _-:,:::.J' 'c;Q~ ¡ , ~- ^,..ç.>,-."f(.~ ~' I;::::! '(."v^.~-}.:\ ~1 ,., r:.,~ ~"'\..\ =¡ Mr. Mark Taylor \/ ~ .., ~ " -\,~ 1 City of San Marcos \ 7 \" -~ / 630 E. Hopkins '~5> '-') \. '" a c s!!lJ::7 San Marcos, Texas 78666 ':::::-~.I ,í7, '-, ~. Re: Sierra Club v. San Antonio and San Antonio Water System, et al¡ Civil Action No. MO-96-CA-097¡ United States District Court, Western District of Texas, Midland/Odessa Division Dear Mark: First, I want to thank the City for the opportunity to continue to represent San Marcos in connection wîth the Sierra Club's latest Endangered Species Act lawsuit. Obviously, we wish that the City had not been placed in the posture of defendant in this litigation¡ however, we look forward to providing legal counsel to the City in connection with its defense. In addition to confirming our representation in this matter, I wanted to provide you with a proposal for an alternative fee arrangement from the one used in the recently concluded Sierra , Club, et al v. Secretary Babbitt, et al. As you know, our ¡ " arrangement for fees in the last litigation was a straight hourly rate for legal services rendered, plus reimbursement of out-of- pocket expenses incurred in the course of representation. While that arrangement was not a pure hourly rate arrangement as we periodically made adjustments to provide discounts to the City, it generally would be described in that fashion. The two principal lawyers working on the matter were myself and John Breihan. As you know, at the conclusion of the litigation our standard hourly rates as set by the Firm's Management Committee were $225.00 per hour and $195.00 per hour, respectively. That litigation did not provide much opportunity to utilize younger lawyers with lower billing rates because our role in the litigation was primarily to review the work done by the Sierra Club and GBRA lawyers in the development of cases strategy, document review and trial preparation. Rather than use younger, less experienced lawyers to do that type of review, John and I took í ~'.