A Nevada school district's decision to hire a Trump-loving attorney who is also a failed Republican gubernatorial candidate is proving to be very costly.
The Nevada Independent reports that the Douglas County School District started getting hit with eye-popping legal expenses shortly after hiring attorney Joey Gilbert as its counsel.
In August, Gilbert's law firm charged the district $36,000 in legal fees, which the Nevada Independent notes is roughly double what the district would pay in monthly expenses for its previous legal representation.
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One month later, Gilbert hit the district with a whopping $74,000 bill that has left some officials in the district stunned.
“I'm responsible for what has been budgeted, about $160,000 [for the entire year], and we're certainly on pace to blow past that," Superintendent Keith Lewis tells the Nevada Independent. "That's on my watch. In that way, I think I have a right to be concerned."
Benjamin Edwards, a University of Nevada Las Vegas law professor who specializes in legal ethics, said that one possible non-nefarious explanation for the massive bills is that Gilbert is so thoroughly lacking in experience with education-related law that he has needed to spend money simply to do work necessary to become competent at the job.
“A lawyer who has no expertise in a particular area can ethically take it on, so long as they put in the time and do the work to become competent in providing those services,” Edwards told the publication.
After losing the Republican gubernatorial primary last year, Gilbert filed a lawsuit alleging that the election had supposedly been stolen from him. After his complaint was found meritless, a judge slapped Gilbert with $88,000 in sanctions.
