Detroit— A law firm that could get $350,000 to coordinate Wayne County’s response to FBI subpoenas has a lawyer on staff who is married to a former county aide under investigation.
Wayne County commissioners today will consider a contract with Miller Canfield to gather information sought in eight federal subpoenas served on County Executive Robert Ficano’s administration this fall.
Among the firm’s attorneys is Joni Thrower-Grundy, wife of ex-Assistant Executive Michael Grundy, accused of seeking kickbacks, fired last month and named in subpoenas.
Pat Dostine, a spokesman for Ficano, wrote in an email that “Miller Canfield is aware of the conflict,” but deferred questions to the Detroit firm about how it would handle the issue.
The county has already paid Thomas Cranmer, the primary attorney in the case, upwards of $50,000. Neither he nor his firm returned calls Wednesday.
The Detroit News obtained the 19-page copy of the contract with Miller Canfield, and the relationship with Thrower-Grundy is not disclosed.
Miller Canfield is a large law firm and Thrower-Grundy is not working on the subpoenas. But state ethics rules don’t distinguish between firms and their employees, said Larry Dubin, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
“The ethics rules for conflicts treat a law firm as one lawyer, so if one lawyer in the firm has a conflict, then that conflict is imputed to every lawyer in the firm,” Dubin said.
The one-year deal calls for Cranmer and other partners to make $330 an hour while others make $225 per hour, both of which are discounted rates.
Attorneys not only would collect information demanded by a grand jury but also sit in on interviews with county employees by the FBI.
The contract is controversial since it’s one of the first major costs to taxpayers in the probe. But it’s not the last.
On Wednesday, the board of a county-affiliated agency that Grundy once ran, Wayne County HealthChoice, voted to spend $150,000 on services related to the investigation.
This fall, a contractor for the agency that provides low-cost health insurance told the FBI that Grundy pressured her to make monthly payments to companies registered to his childhood friend.
The county also fired the agency’s accountant, Sharon Mattic, after an internal investigation revealed some $400,000 was transferred from HealthChoice to the companies.
HealthChoice’s board voted to spend $120,000 on a forensic audit of its books and $30,000 for Ann Arbor-based attorney John R. Mincock.
