CIRM's Outside Lawyers Win Retroactive, 66 Percent Pay Hike

A key panel of CIRM directors has approved a $165,000, retroactive payment to its outside attorneys, Remcho, Johansen and Purcell of San Leandro, Ca. Details of the proposed action were never disclosed to the public in advance of approval.

John M. Simpson of Consumer Watchdog reported the approval on his blog, saying,

"Stem Cell Agency Chairman Bob Klein said Remcho billed the additional hours because of (James) Harrison's work on the agency's first bond sale, efforts to negotiate discounts in the grant awards to build research facilities and added involvement in vetting Requests for Applications (RFAs) for grants."

Simpson, who attended the Governance Subcommittee meeting Wednesday and made comments during the session, wrote,

"I suggested that retroactively approving the increase was bad policy. Klein said the item was on the agenda for an earlier planned governance committee meeting, but the session was canceled.

"He said that Harrison ran up the additional billable hours at the law firm's risk, though I can't imagine the agency would have refused to pay."

Well prior to the meeting, the California Stem Cell Report asked for more information on the cryptic Remcho agenda item, but CIRM repeatedly refused to disclose what was being considered despite the fact that the information is certainly a public record.