Sheriff Joe--Taxpayers Pay $990 per Hour for Joe's Lawyer in Feud with County Judges

When you look up Big Firm, illustration 1, might be Sidley Austin LLP, oh Jones Day is in the mix as well.  If you click the link to the Sidley Austin homepage you'll see a crawl of their offices worldwide.  Beijing, Brussesl, Washington, D.C.--you get the picture, Big Law.  Surprisingly they do not have an office in Maricopa County, Arizona, but that didn't stop Sheriff Joe!

To the tune of a"discounted" $990 per hour, the Maricopa citizens are providing America's toughest Sheriff with Sidley Austin counsel in Joe's war on the Maricopa judiciaiary.  This is the Phoenix New Times report on the Maricopa-taxpayer funded feud:

"According to documents obtained by New Times, Arpaio has actually agreed to pay Washington, D.C., attorney Carter G. Phillips $990 -- per hour -- for his legal work in this fight.  And Phillips' fee -- unbelievable as it sounds -- actually represents a small discount. According to the engagement letter submitted by Phillips' firm, D.C.-based Sidley Austin, Phillips normally charges $1,100 per hour.  For that kind of fee, you'd surely expect Phillips to get results.

Ha!  

We first got interested in Phillips' fee last fall, when we learned that Arpaio had brought him on pro hac vice (which basically means as an out-of-state lawyer) to file a special action on the sheriff's records dispute with the appellate court. Arpaio, of course, has been dying to read e-mails and other internal documents written by court staff. But both the superior and appellate courts had ruled that the sort of work product generated by judges -- despite Arpaio's intense interest -- simply isn't public record under state law.

Matters of law, though, rarely stop Sheriff Joe or his cohort County Attorney Andrew Thomas. They'd prefer to hire expensive firms to tilt at windmills for them than to accept a loss.  Just witness Thomas' hiring of another pricey D.C. firm, Jones Day. As we reported here, they managed to ring up bills of nearly half-a-million dollars on Thomas' silly fight against Spanish-language DUI probation services -- even while losing at every stop.

As for Phillips, he has a resume. He was a law clerk to former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. He's argued 56 cases before the highest court in the land.  But on this dog of a case, he had no luck whatsoever.The appellate court rejected Phillips' request for special action on the judges' e-mail issue just two days after his 40-page motion was filed. The appellate judges didn't even bother to comment in their rejection. Ouch!  Undoubtedly, Arpaio and his minions promptly told Phillips to start preparing an appeal to the state Supreme Court -- damn the cost! -- and surely, the U.S. Supreme Court, too, if need be. That's just how they roll."