Stephenson Morow & Semler/DOL LAW OFFICES
STEPHENSON MOROW SEMLER
A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
JAMES S. STEPHENSON 8710 NORTH MERIDIAN STREET, SUITE 200 OFFICE: (317) 844 -3830
MICHAEL R. MOROW INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 46260 -5388 FAX: (317) 573 -4194
RONALD J. SEMLER WEB: WWW.STEPHLAW.COM
WAYNE E. UHL WRITER'S EMAIL: wuhl @stephlaw.com
MARK A. HOLLOWAY
ROSEMARY L. BOREK TONYA M. ARETZ
JAMES G. LIWSKI (1959 1999)
IAN L. STEWART January 2, 2010 G. RICHARD POTTER
y (1946 2001)
By email with original by mail
Douglas C. Haney
City Attorney
Carmel City Hall, 3rd Floor
One Civic Square
Carmel, Indiana 46032
Re: Thomas Trancik, M.D. v. Brandon Pryor et al.
Cause No.: 29D02- 0911 -CC -1424
Our File: 10 -5945
Dear Mr. Haney:
Thank you for informing me that the City of Carmel is seeking outside counsel to defend the
City against the above lawsuit.
As you know, our firm concentrates on and has considerable experience advising and
defending political subdivisions in a large variety of legal claims, ranging from simple personal
injury actions to complex class action civil rights lawsuits. Our experience includes defense of
actions arising from the arrest and jailing of suspects, including medical care issues. We
r g u l practice in b state and f u rs
.,Y ar. r e..o.� �s.
My own experience has been almost exclusively devoted to governmental litigation, starting
with nine years at the Tennessee Attorney General's office, 13 years at the Indiana Attorney
General's office (including eight years supervising civil rights and employment litigation), and
seven years at this firm.
As you know, the firm also has experience defending Carmel. In the past couple of years, we
have defended an employment discrimination action in federal court (Nikoloff), a civil rights
action in federal court (Walton), a personal injury claim based on the condition of a road
(Layne), a pair of property flooding claims related to the City's approval of construction (Tom
O'Brien /Bottamiller), and a police action claim (Reed /Downey).
LAW OFFICES
Douglas C. Haney STEPHENSON MOROW SEMLER
January 22, 2010
Page 2
We have represented the Hamilton County Sheriff in the past, but the last such matter was
closed years ago. None of the cases involved responsibility for the payment of an inmate's
medical expenses. We do not believe that our prior representation of the Sheriff presents a
potential conflict of interest or other obstacle to our representation of Carmel in this matter,
even if (as seems likely) Carmel will be taking a position adverse to the interests of the Sheriff.
Our fee for the defense of this matter would be $155 /hour for partners and $145 /hour for
associates, billed in tenths of an hour. At this point my expectation is that the work on this file
would be done almost exclusively by me at the partner rate. Intra- office conferences will be
billed only for the time of the highest hourly rated attorney involved. We also bill for postage
at cost and inside copying at $0.10 /page for black and white and $0.25 /page for color. There
is no charge for fax transmissions. We will advance and bill outside costs of $100 or less, and
forward to you any outside vendor invoices in excess of $100. All outside vendor work in
excess of $100 will be pre- approved by the City. Local travel is billed only for the attorney's
time.
We would be very pleased to provide legal services to the City of Carmel in this matter.
Please let me know if you need further information. I look forward to hearing from you soon
so that we can enter our appearance and begin investigating and researching the claim.
Very truly yours,
STEPHENSON MOROW SEMLER
(‘(71"
Wayne E. Uhl
10- 5945 /haney.101. doc /mmi
Authorized by:
Douglas C. Haney, Carmel City Attorney
Date: 01046
Approved this day of t uU.&(L 2010.
CITY OF CARMEL, INDIANA
By and through its Board of Public Works and Safety
BY:
J es Brainard, Presiding Office
Date: 0— 3 %t)
21a_
Mary A ember
Date:
Lori S. Wats• Member
Date: 3 1 1 O
ATTESy:
Diana Cordray, IMCA, cidrk- Treasurer
Date: a- 3- D