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Gloucester's top lawyer leaving for private practice

Linda Lowe, Gloucester's chief counsel for nearly two decades, is leaving City Hall at the end of the week for private practice.

Lowe's decision to join a small municipal firm in Framingham ends nearly four months of uncertainty about her future and soul-searching inside and outside City Hall about the best way for Gloucester to obtain legal services.

Lowe's departure was catalyzed in January by Mayor Carolyn Kirk's announced intention to outsource legal services to Kopelman and Paige, a Boston-based firm specializing in municipal law.

Kirk's idea was thwarted by expressions of support for Lowe and for keeping a full-time law office in City Hall from councilors, volunteer members of the city's government and lawyers, and the complications resulting from Kopelman and Paige's role as Essex town counsel.

On Kopelman and Paige's recommendation, Essex sued Gloucester last month claiming accumulated sewer overcharges of nearly $100,000 and continuing misinterpretation of the intermunicipal agreement.

At the time, Kirk called that recommendation "bad advice." Yesterday, the mayor said she intended to bring back Lowe to face off against Kopelman and Paige in the intermunicipal litigation.

A private firm, analyzing the suit for the city, advised the mayor that depositions alone could cost $100,000, which is more than Lowe's $77,752 annual city salary.

Kirk told the Times that Lowe's departure "frees up some money for specialized legal help."

Lowe co-wrote the intermunicipal agreement under which Essex agreed to finance the extension of the sewer line that allowed Essex to become a customer of the city sewer system.

The mayor also said she planned to leave open the position of chief counsel, at least temporarily, while attempting to create a "hybrid" system of outsourced and in-house legal services, the latter "in all likelihood" provided by Suzanne Egan, who was Lowe's near-fulltime second-in-command, and by Kathleen Lane, the city's long-time paralegal and legal secretary.

"I'm committed to the reforms of how we obtain legal services," Kirk said. "Until we need extra hands on deck, that gives us some flexibility. ... We're not completely outsourcing the department."

Lowe leaves City Hall to join the Framinghman-based firm of Petrini and Associates. With Lowe, according to founder Christopher Petrini, the firm will have five members, including two who were recruited to Petrini and Associates from Kopelman and Paige.

Founded by Leonard Kopelman, Kopelman and Paige has become the most successful municipal specialty firm in Massachusetts, representing about one-third of municipalities, mostly towns, by charging $150 a hour for specialized expertise from a staff of about 60 lawyers.

Petrini said his firm serves as legal counsel for two towns, Framingham and Medway, and "would be interested" in taking on Gloucester as well should the mayor put the legal services work out to bid.

To do that would require the approval of City Council, which balked at Kirk's initial announcement of her choice to switch from Lowe to Kopelman and Paige.

A number of counselors at the time questioned Kirk's decision to go with Kopelman and Paige before seeking competitive bids for the work.

Petrini said he had gotten to know Lowe from their membership in the Massachusetts City Solicitors Association. They completed negotiations about "two weeks ago," he said.

According to Kirk, Lowe submitted her resignation April 17 though both parties continued talks through last week. Lowe called her decision "very difficult," while Kirk praised Lowe for "dedication and professionalism" while performing one of the city's "most difficult and complex jobs."

In a memo to the council, Kirk said, "Despite the turmoil over the future of the department in the past few months, Linda has maintained her high professional standards for which I personally am grateful."

Kirk said she anticipates "retaining" Lowe as special counsel from Petrini and Associates "as the city continues to wrestle with environmental and sewer issues."