Council committee picks law firm Fisher Phillips for city harassment probe

The Indianapolis City-County Council Investigative Committee voted Wednesday evening to select national law firm Fisher Phillips to conduct an independent investigation into the Hogsett administration’s handling of sexual harassment allegations.

A bipartisan group of councilors voted to create the committee after sexual harassment allegations came to light against Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s former chief of staff, Thomas Cook. Critics have said the mayor and his administration failed to act appropriately in Cook’s case, in which he was first accused of misconduct in 2017 but brought on as a volunteer for the mayor’s reelection campaign in 2023.

Cook has not been charged with a crime. He has acknowledged “consensual relationships that violated a trust,” but he said he did not seek to use his professional position to further those relationships.

The seven-member committee quickly determined in discussions that Fisher Phillips was among it’s top choices.

“Looks like they have a strong organization,” Republican Councilor Josh Bain said about Fisher Phillips in remarks to the committeee. “They have done this before, and as far as I could tell, there’s been no issues with the investigations that they’ve done.”

In a proposal submitted to councilors, the law firm said it has “broad experience conducting complex, confidential internal investigations into a range of highly sensitive workplace matters on behalf of local government clients and providing practical and politically sensitive advice based on the outcome thereof.”

Democratic Councilor Crista Carlino, chair of the seven-member committee, said Fisher Phillips was the best candidate among four law firms due to the firm’s experience and expertise, similar prior cases and fiscal stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Of the three firms that submitted proposals, Fisher Phillips had the lowest rates.

The bid packet doesn’t explicitly state a total cost for the investigation because the number of hours needed hasn’t been determined. However, the team Fisher Phillips will make available includes three partners at a cost of $595 hourly, two associates costing $495 hourly and a paralegal at $295 hourly.

Fisher Phillips specializes in representing employers in labor and unemployment matters. The firm’s headquarters is in Atlanta, but it was chosen by councilors in part because of its regional offices in Cleveland and Chicago. Also part of the criteria was that the selected firm be based outside of Indianapolis and not have business, political or financial ties to the city.      

Fisher Phillips has 39 offices nationwide with 600 attorneys, but no offices in Indiana.

Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Morgan Lewis LLP were also considered, along with a third candidate that failed to submit documents ahead of the previous meeting.

Both Seyfarth Shaw and Morgan Lewis listed hourly rates at a high of $1,000.

Councilors said the rates did not greatly influence their decision, but that it was beneficial to taxpayers that the selected firm also had the lowest price tag.

“While cost was sort of at the bottom of our list, it was a really happy coincidence that Fisher Phillips not only had the sort of chops that we need to move forward in this work, but also we feel really good about the budget impact,” Carlino said.

Carlino told reporters she aims to have attorneys from the Fisher Phillips in attendance at the Nov. 14 meeting of the ethics committee.