A law firm with close ties to Mayor Steve Bach has billed the city $157,974 in legal fees since Bach was elected last year.

Hogan Lovells, an international law firm with a Colorado Springs office, started to get outside legal work from the city in October, four months after Bach was sworn into office, according to documents obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act.

The Gazette requested to see legal fees paid to Hogan Lovells since 2009. It’s unclear whether the firm billed for city legal work before then.

City Attorney Chris Melcher, who took over as city attorney Oct. 1, said Monday that he was “very surprised” that the city didn’t retain Hogan Lovells before October 2011.

“They’re one of the top firms in the country,” Melcher said. “They’re certainly one of the top firms in the state, and I know they’re one of the largest law firms in the city.”

In a statement, Bach said the City Attorney’s Office uses multiple outside law firms.

“They determine, in their discretion, which firms to employ,” Bach said.

John W. Cook, who is the managing partner of the Colorado Springs office of Hogan Lovells, represented Bach during the mayor’s race when confusion over campaign-contribution-reporting requirements became an issue of contention. Bach’s campaign paid the firm more than $10,000 for the work, according to campaign finance records.

Cook and David W. Isbell, a partner at the local office, each donated $900 to Bach’s campaign during the runoff election between Bach and businessman Richard Skorman, records show. Cook and Isbell each donated $500 to Bach during the primary race.

Cook did not return a call for comment, and Isbell said he wasn’t sure whether Hogan Lovells was getting more business from the city because of the firm’s connection to the mayor.

“You’d have to talk to John,” Isbell said.

Melcher said the city isn’t retaining Hogan Lovells for outside legal work because of its connection to the mayor.

“The City Attorney’s Office always looks first inside our office for litigation support and for our litigation attorneys to try cases,” he said. “But if we’re in situations where we don’t have sufficient resources or we don’t have particular expertise, we will look outside, and we’ve looked at a number of different firms.”

The work that Hogan Lovells has provided to the city has been “uniformly excellent,” Melcher said.

That work includes helping the city with oil and gas regulations, transitioning to the new form of government, and rewriting its election and campaign finance disclosure codes, he said.

“There’s seven other law firms that have been paid more than Hogan Lovells by the city for legal work” so far this year, Melcher said.Hogan Lovells has also been on the other side of the table, representing the University of Colorado Health system in negotiations with Colorado Springs to lease Memorial Health System. The law firm disclosed “previously identified conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest with the City,” records show.

In March, a former city spokesman said Melcher didn’t have to bid out the work for outside counsel.

“City regulations allow the city attorney to choose professional legal services without using the city’s typical proposal and selection process,” former spokesman John Leavitt said.

According to procurement regulations, exceptions for bidding the work include “obtaining professional legal services for trials, research, opinions, and testimony.”

“No limit on cost as long as the City Attorney’s Office has determined the need for such service is appropriate and the cost is fair and reasonable,” the regulations state.

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Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623