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jf)ç/f Mr. Mark Taylor June 17, 1996 Page 2 - charge of those tasks in an effort to minimize the amount of lawyer time spent on behalf of the City. This latest lawsuit will again require a substantial level of expertise in connection with the subject matter involved.' However, as the City has now been placed in the role of defendant because it , pumps its municipal water supply from the Edwards Aquifer, there will likely be a need for a substantial amount of preparatory work, ¡ legal research, document review, organization and preparation in connection with the litigation. Much of the expected work in connection with the litigation will not necessarily require the same degree of expertise or sophistication in the substantive area of the law. Accordingly, we will have the opportunity to use younger lawyers and legal assistants within the firm whose billing rates are commensurately lower than mine and John's. For these reasons we wanted to propose a fee arrangement to the City, other than our customary straight hourly rates, which we believe will reflect some savings to the City. Specifically, rather than billing the City on an hourly basis at what was a combined average rate for work performed by John and I at . . approx~mately $210.00 per hour ($225.00 + $195.00 + 2 = $210.00 per hour), we would propose to bill the City the lesser of normal hourly rates or a "blended hourly rate" of $175.00 per hour for all attorney time regardless of the normal hourly rate of the attorneys involved. We anticipate that over the course of the litigation using such a "blended hourly rate" billing practice should result in savings to the City. Of course, the overall savings to the City will be dependent upon how long the litigation lasts and the level of intensity at various stages of the litigation. Additionally, while we will endeavor to minimize our overall involvement in the , litigation, we will not be in full control of the lawsuit. The number of external factors affecting the intensity of the litigation will at a minimum equal the number of parties to the lawsuit. In this regard, whatever steps the City is able to successfully accomplish to negotiate some form of settlement or otherwise limit the scope of its involvement in the litigation would generate substantial savings in addition to the use of the "blended rate." Additionally, savings may be accomplished through the pooling of resources, ~, the development of a "joint defense group" among similarly situated defendants. This concept, and its potential for successful implementation are discussed in greater detail below. While we would encourage looking into the possibility of trying to form some joint defense arrangements with similarly