When City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto decided she needed help in a high-profile federal lawsuit around providing shelter for unhoused people in May, she asked the L.A. City Council to approve an initial two-year contract with an outside law firm “not to exceed” $900,000.

The contract was notable for its size — 15 attorneys, each at $1,295 an hour, for a multi-day mini-trial, a follow up brief to the court and a likely appeal of the judge’s ultimate ruling — at a time when the city was facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit .

But the $900,000 was blown in just the first few days — with no sign of the council being informed or giving its authorization, despite the council’s instruction to keep them in the loop.

The law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, billed about $1.8 mill

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