Hinsdale D86 Hints At Unhappiness With Law Firm
HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 officials have not said why they apparently don’t want to keep the law firm they hired in January.
But they hinted at reasons during a special school board meeting Wednesday.
Costs were mentioned repeatedly.
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Over the last few months, Patch has repeatedly written about Chicago-based Robbins Schwartz’s legal bills. They are far higher than those of other districts.
“I don’t like seeing our attorneys on the front page of the newspaper,” said Superintendent Michael Lach, who took the helm in July. “It should be about kids and the schools. That’s something all of us should work on.”
Find out what's happening in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“About getting the attorney off the front page of the paper?” board President Catherine Greenspon asked. “How do we work on that?”
Lach replied, “We do great things for kids and families.”
For the budget year that ended June 30, the district spent nearly $700,000 on legal bills. At the current rate, it is on pace to exceed $900,000 this budget year.
Earlier this month, the board publicly signaled possible discontent with Robbins Schwartz, which is supposed to handle all the district’s legal business. At a meeting on Sept. 5, members hired Oak Brook-based Engler, Callaway, Baasten & Sraga to handle “select students, special education and other matters.”
In July, board member Terri Walker was the first one to publicly express concern about rising legal bills. At the time, others defended the costs.
But at Wednesday’s meeting, their sentiments have soured.
“We’ve struggled with how workflow is managed, how advice is rendered, how it’s disseminated,” said member Heather Karsounes, a lawyer herself.
Member Jeff Waters said cost was a factor for the board, but so were “synergies and efficiencies.”
Superintendent Michael Lach said the board was seeking a change and “change is hard.”
“I think we all recognize that as of right now, we’re not where we want to be vis-a-vis our legal partnerships,” Lach said. “There’s a bunch of work to rebuild that, around reducing bills, around improvement in management and coordination.”
The board generally agreed to have the district’s staff write a request to law firms to detail their offerings. Members asked for the draft to be ready in time for Thursday’s regular board meeting.
During the public comment period at Wednesday’s meeting, resident Yvonne Mayer said the board should have gone with a competitive process in January, rather than giving Robbins Schwartz the inside track.
“Maybe you can all start by putting your egos aside and acknowledge that mistakes were made and correct your behavior,” she said.
A district spokesman told Patch on Thursday that Robbins Schwartz remained the board’s attorney.
Last January, the board was publicly preparing a request for proposals to law firms. But members abandoned the process without explanation, choosing Robbins Schwartz. That prompted a complaint from Mayer to the attorney general’s office. She alleged the board broke the state’s open meetings law.
Robbins Schwartz’s relationship with the district began with a secret meeting before a new board majority took office on May 3, 2023. The firm met with a few current and incoming members.
Upon taking office, the board hired the firm as a special counsel to handle the legalities of ousting then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss.
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