Bell, Calif., briefly occupied the nation’s attention when the Los Angeles Times made it front-page news that the troubled city in an unglamorous section of Los Angeles County was paying its civic leaders mind-bogglingly exorbitant salaries. State and county leaders, including then-state Attorney General Jerry Brown, opened investigations. Criminal charges ensued, as did civil actions against the city and the law firms that had been advising it.
Until recently, much of the focus has been on finding out who approved those fat paychecks. But fresh allegations focus on the conduct of the city’s former bond counsel, Nixon Peabody. In legal pleadings filed last month, the city accused the firm of helping to prepare a $35 million private bond offering in October 2007 while also representing the purchaser of those bonds. The city named the firm and former partner Edsell Martindale (Chip) Eady Jr.
