Amid a flurry of resolutions on Tuesday that saw the East Hampton Town Board approve the services of myriad lawyers and law firms, there was one that will increase last year’s cap for legal services paid to Cooley L.L.P., one of its outside airport legal advisers, by about half a million dollars.
The firm’s fees for last year were capped at $2.7 million, but given the ongoing battle over the airport’s future — will it remain a public airport or transition to a town-owned but privately operated facility? — the 2022 cap was retroactively raised to $3.18 million.
The board also passed a second resolution to continue using Cooley’s services in 2023, and approved up to $1.5 million for the firm. In approving that one, the board noted that last year, after it adopted three local laws designed to address persistent noise complaints by restricting the use of the airport, the town lost a highly publicized court fight to an entity calling itself “Friends of the East Hampton Airport.”
This year, says Tuesday’s resolution, “The town wishes to exhaust all options to protect residents from excessive airport noise, including pursuing a noise control ordinance through the Federal Aviation Administration and under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990.” It goes on to highlight the Cooley firm’s experience with exactly that issue, “garnered over decades of devising and defending a variety of such noise mitigation.”
Other firms on the receiving end of the town’s legal-needs largess included Cahn & Cahn P.C. for “various matters,” Devitt Spellman Barrett L.L.P. for various lawsuits filed against the town or its employees, Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell for aviation-related services, Sokoloff Stern L.L.P. to represent Town Justice Steven Tekulsky in a civil lawsuit, and Rigano L.L.C. for environmental-law services.
