‘We have to pay for it’: DA’s office faces high turnover, low salaries, lots of work
Lawyers in the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office are making low wages for their field and taking on “insane” caseloads, DA Marc Bennett said Wednesday, adding that it’s affecting the office’s ability to hire and retain employees.
Attorneys are increasingly leaving the job behind for other public sector legal positions with better incomes that can help them pay off their student loan debt, Bennett said.
“It’s tough to keep the balling rolling and keep cases moving when you have that kind of turnover,” Bennett told county commissioners.
The issue led the district attorney’s office to request a salary study from Wichita State University. It compared lawyers’ wages in Sedgwick County to those in comparable offices elsewhere in the U.S. The office also looked at salary data for other Kansas district attorney’s offices and city attorney positions.
The results showed entry-level attorneys make less than those in Johnson, Shawnee and Wyandotte counties. A similar trend continues if employees stay around longer.
A senior attorney with the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office makes just over $83,000. The same position in Riley County, where Manhattan is, makes more than $129,000. A senior attorney in Douglas County, home to Lawrence, makes almost $93,000.
More senior attorney positions within the city of Wichita also bring in higher incomes than in Sedgwick County, according to the salary study.
Bennett did not ask county commissioners for immediate raises, but rather requested the county look at other ways to improve the attraction and retention ability of his office.
Attorney turnover with Sedgwick County DA
Since 2019, about five lawyers left the district attorney’s office each year, according to Bennett’s presentation to county commissioners. But with five lost employees only halfway through this year, 2021 is on track to see an increase. The turnover rate is set to nearly double this year from 2019 and 2020.
Starting in 2019, employees with 20 to 30 years of service began to leave — something that previously hadn’t occurred since 2013. Lawyers with 10 to 20 years of experience are also increasingly leaving the post.
The county did give the office some salary enhancements since 2017, with some variable and across the board increases. But the salary study shows it wasn’t enough to bring wages in line with other Kansas counties.
One solution Bennett proposed involves the county’s funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the COVID-19 relief bill passed in March. The county could offer a one-time bonus to provide more immediate relief, Bennett suggested.
His second request was that commissioners consider a cost-of-living adjustment for lawyers in his office — despite the fact that past increases did not bring attorney wages up to speed.
Bennett also asked that his office be considered for potential salary increases in January. The district attorney’s office employs about 55 lawyers, according to Bennett’s presentation.
Helping with student loan debt
Candidates for the district attorney’s office often turn down a position because they need a higher income to pay off student loan debt, Bennett said.
His office contacted the University of Kansas and Washburn University, where most job candidates attended law school, to learn more about the debt.
He found that young attorneys from those universities often have an average of about $85,000 in student loans. Many have debt from their undergraduate degree to pay on top of that, leading to more than $100,000 in student debt in some cases.
The district attorney’s office also conducted an anonymous survey of its employees last month. It found they had an average debt of $79,843 and an average monthly payment of $523.
Total student loan debt in the district attorney’s office ranged from $5,000 up to $225,000. Some people are paying as much as $1,240 a month toward their school debt.
It’s true that the employees chose to take on debt by going to law school, Bennett said. However, the office wants to employ a range of lawyers, not just those who are independently wealthy and can opt for a lower-paying job.
“I’d like to know that the people on the side of the room I sit on are competent, committed, intelligent people who want to make their community better,” he said.
To address student loan debt, Bennett asked county commissioners if his office could take what it saves on salaries from departing attorneys to help current attorneys pay off some debt. It would act as an incentive program, the type of recruitment and retention tool already seen in the private sector.
County Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner, who represents the county’s First District, said it’s complicated to pay employee debt because of tax implications. But the county should focus on its ability to hire more people and have better pay, he said.
Audit finds high caseloads for lawyers
It’s typical for the office to lose employees who have worked there for fewer than five years, Bennett’s presentation on attorney turnover showed. But in the past few years, more attorneys with five to 10 years of experience in the office began leaving.
“That’s a tough loss,” he said.
The district attorney’s office also had an outside firm conduct an audit to see how efficiently it was operating. Bennett wanted to find out how productivity and workload compared to other offices around the country.
The audit found that in 2020, lawyers in the criminal division attended 15,000 hearings.
“That is a lot of work for a small number of people,” Bennett said.
Attorneys take on an average of 136 cases in his office. Some lawyers who supervise others and have their own handle as many as 210 cases.
The auditors told Bennett that his attorneys’ caseloads were breathtaking, he said. Their recommendation to reduce that workload was either to charge fewer cases and tell the community they don’t have time, or to hire more attorneys to spread out the work.
“While we’re underpaid, the expectations on these lawyers are huge,” Bennett said.
Commissioner David Dennis, who represents the county’s Third District, said he doesn’t see the workload letting up very much. But the county can look at compensation and hopes to address it, he said.
Lacey Cruse, who represents the county’s Fourth District on the commission, said she would like to see the county attempt to reduce attorneys’ caseloads by funding mental health and substance abuse prevention resources.
“If we put money out there, I wonder how we could reduce the number of cases your attorneys have,” she said.
Bennett said the office can also reduce workloads by not having to run every case by a jury. Even with those efforts, he called the caseload “overwhelming” and difficult work at the end of the day.
“The power in the hands of this office is important enough,” Bennett said. “We want to make sure we get the right people in here. To do that, we have to pay for it.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 3:08 PM.
