Agenda - Council Work Session - 05/07/2013

Home

DATE: April 2, 2013 PROPOSAL OF CHRISTIAN R. PETERSON FOR THE CITY OF RAMSEY CRIMINAL PROSECUTION SERVICES TO: The City of Ramsey, Anoka County, Minnesota, its City Council and its City Administrator Christian R. Peterson, Attorney at Law, hereby respectfully submits his proposal for PROSECUTION legal services for the City of Ramsey (the "City "). FIRM BACKGROUND I founded Christian Peterson Law Office in April 2012 shortly after leaving my position as an Assistant County Attorney with the Scott County Attorney's Office. I started my law firm with the intent of using my years of government experience to provide cost - effective, client- focused municipal law services to cities and townships in Minnesota. Prosecution services in Minnesota are largely being provided by large law -firms that charge high hourly fees in exchange for little interaction with the client city. Furthermore, these firms often send their most inexperienced associates to handle municipal cases. I strive to flip that approach on its head. My law firm is a solo practice focusing on the areas of criminal prosecution, municipal law, as well as criminal defense and family law services for individuals. I have a small office in the City of Shakopee where I meet individual clients and receive mail. However, the bulk of my work is done out of my home office in Maple Grove. My firm is growing quickly as cities have seen the value my services provide. As such, I am expanding into a larger office in the City of Anoka to provide meaningful face time and court access to my municipal clients. ATTORNEY QUALIFICATIONS I have specialized in the area of criminal prosecution and municipal law for my entire legal career and have experience in all aspects of municipal prosecution. I have nearly a decade of criminal prosecution experience, and have litigated thousands of city cases from charging and pretrial on through jury trial and appeal. Prior to working in Scott County, I was the prosecutor for the City of Ramsey with the firm of Randall and Goodrich for approximately two years from 2007 through 2009. During that time I made it my goal to provide a "face to the name" in the prosecution side of our representation; as I felt this had been previously lacking. To that end I implemented many of the policies that your current police department, prosecutor, and city officials use to communicate about cases. I instituted regular office hours at the police department where I would attend role call and be physically present within city offices to answer questions and communicate directly with officers and city staff. I insisted that all law enforcement and city staff have my cell phone number and contact me there at any time of day. I was committed then, as I am now, to responding to all inquiries by city personnel by the end of the same business day.