With Carroll County Attorney Charles "Chuck" W. Thompson Jr. departing to head the law department for Montgomery County government, Carroll's commissioners have to make a choice. They could hire a replacement and maintain the office or turn the county's legal work over to private attorneys, as Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown has suggested. If the commissioners decide to privatize the law office, they will be making a terrible mistake.
Conventional wisdom is that private industry can work more cost-effectively than government. And in many cases, that's true, especially for such functions as garbage collection or managing public parking facilities. But maintaining a smooth-running county law office is the most cost-effective way to meet the county's legal needs.
During his 16-year tenure as county attorney, Mr. Thompson developed a cadre of professionals who effectively handled Carroll's legal affairs. The office is essentially an in-house law firm that services the commissioners, county department directors and advisory boards and commissions. It represents the county in legal cases, prosecutes building and zoning code violations, and collects debts. The office prepares all contracts, leases, deeds and other legal documents. This is done at a cost of about $500,000 a year -- a bargain compared to fees private attorneys would charge for the same volume of work.
Since most government legal counsel involves creating, enforcing and interpreting laws, ordinances and regulations, it makes little sense to contract work to outside firms. With a fully-staffed law department, department heads can easily obtain legal advice. With private representation, these casual calls might be discouraged because they would cost the county large sums. As a result, the county might find itself facing even larger legal bills in court.
As Fortune 500 corporations form in-house legal departments to cut their burgeoning bills, Carroll's commissioners ought to pay attention. There is no need to dismantle the department Mr. Thompson created.
The county's lawyers -- not its citizens -- would benefit from "outsourcing" the county's legal business. The county would be better served to find a replacement of Mr. Thompson's caliber and keep that office intact.