A review by an attorney suggests the city of Lewes is spending too much on outside law firms to help it conduct business.
Luke Mette is a lawyer with one of five law firms contracted by the city between April 2025 and March 2026. As a pro bono project, he reviewed the city's spending on outside legal counsel during that period and found a number of areas in which Lewes could cut its legal costs with little to no additional risk.
At a meeting Monday, Mette told the city’s mayor and council that the city could see savings of more than $100,000.
“Without taking on any significant legal risk, the city could reduce its external legal expense conservatively by upwards of $100,000 compared to fiscal year 26,” he said.
He notes law firms charge hourly rates for their work and those expenses add up quickly.
“The City of Lewes pays those various law firms different negotiated hourly rates, ranging on the low end from $240 an hour to $500 an hour on the top end,” Mette said.
One of Mette’s findings is that too many people within city government are calling and emailing attorneys for advice. He recommends that all requests for legal advice should go through a single person to reduce the amount of interaction with attorneys.
“Somebody needs to act as a quarterback to engage with outside counsel and direct the specific scope of specific tasks to be undertaken on behalf of the city,” Mette said.
Doing that could save the city a significant amount, he added. In most cases, he noted, that “quarterback” would be the mayor or city manager.
“The city spent $48,000, I estimate, in fiscal year 26 just on one-to-one telephone calls and e-mail exchanges with commissioners or committee members, primarily with the MCC,” Mette said. “Conservatively, I think you could save three-fourths of that expense by running everything through an authorized person.”
Another place the city can save money is by not asking attorneys to attend so many meetings, something that cost Lewes some $55,000 last year. Mette estimates that the city could save tens of thousands of dollars by being more selective about which meetings they ask outside attorneys to attend.
And, Mette notes, city officials are calling on outside attorneys for basic tasks that don’t necessarily require legal expertise, like explaining what he characterized as “plain language” provisions in city and state law or drafting agendas and public notices.
“You don't need a lawyer to review typos in an agreement,” Mette said. “You don't need a lawyer to clean up English.”
However, two members of council pushed back on the idea of having all requests for legal advice routed through one person. Councilman Tim Ritzert asserted that all council members should have access to attorneys employed by the city.
“There is language within the charter that states that the resources of the city - meaning the employees, the department heads, the attorneys - are available to all members of council equally,” he said.
Councilman Joseph Elder agreed with Ritzert, framing the issue around constituent service.
“I will say that a lot of the calls to attorneys are to make sure we're representing our public,” he said.
Council members agreed to postpone discussion on that recommendation and others from Mette until a work session later this year.
