The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday authorized an additional $1.8 million for outside legal representation in ongoing litigation related to a homeless-related settlement.
Council members voted 9-4 to approve a request from City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to increase funding for a contract with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, following a two-hour discussion in closed session.
Per the instructions of Wednesday’s vote, council members allocated $1.8 million from a previously approved $5 million for the contract amendment.
Council members John Lee, Tim McOsker, Imelda Padilla and Monica Rodriguez voted against the funding. Council members Nithya Raman and Curren Price were absent during the vote.
A representative for Feldstein Soto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP began representing the city in May 2025 in a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit LA Alliance for Human Rights.
The initial contract began at $900,000. Outside attorneys billed the city $1.8 million for about two weeks worth of work, with 15 attorneys charging $1,295 per hour and others charging lower amounts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
By August 2025, the firm billed the city another $3.2 million for their work on the case, The Times reported. In December, the City Council approved an additional $5 million for the contract.
The contract now amounts to nearly $7.5 million with the council’s action Wednesday.
The issue stems from a lawsuit filed by the LA Alliance in 2020, a group of business owners and residents who sued the city and county of Los Angeles to ensure more homeless people were sheltered. Los Angeles settled with the Alliance in 2022 with U.S. District Judge David Carter overseeing the agreement.
Last summer, Carter determined the city failed to meet its obligations under the settlement agreement. The agreement requires the city to produce 12,915 shelter beds and remove 9,800 encampments by June 2027. There are still over 3,800 beds to be created, according to court papers.
In an order, Carter wrote the city has shown “a consistent lack of cooperation and responsiveness — an unwillingness to provide documentation unless compelled by court order or media scrutiny.”
The judge stopped short of finding that the city breached the agreement on the whole and declined the “last resort” of appointing a receiver to enforce the city’s compliance with the lawsuit settlement, as requested by plaintiffs. But the court did institute a federal monitor to oversee compliance.
In January, Carter ordered Los Angeles to pay more than $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees and costs to the Alliance and other groups related to the settlement agreement.
Attorneys representing the city appealed Carter’s decision.