Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting occurred on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at 1:30 PM. The date in the title follows the instruction provided for this summary, creating a discrepancy that is not reconciled in the source documents.
The meeting was a pre-agenda interview for Bill 21, a resolution to appoint Lisa Zeidner Marcus as City Solicitor. Council President called the meeting to order, and the clerk read the bill title. Council members present included Schlossberger, Wilson, Mosley, Warwick, Gross, and the Council President. Marcus was sworn in before giving opening remarks and answering questions.
Oh, sorry. Good afternoon, and welcome to the pre-agenda interview for Tuesday, February tenth, two thousand twenty-six for the city solicitor, where clerk please read the title of the bill. Bill Twenty One, resolution appointing Lisa Zeidner Marcus as City Solicitor. And for the record, we are currently joined by Councilman Strasberger as well as Councilman Wilson. Others may be joining us shortly. We will first begin with the oath that has to be given to all directors. Do you, Solicitor Marcus, solemnly affirm that the testimony you are about to give before this council shall be the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the truth, and do you further affirm that you will and faith you will faithfully discharge the duties of the solicitor's office to which you have been nominated. Thank you. With that, I believe you have an intro that you want to provide to members before we go into questions. Yes, thank you, Council President. Honorable members of City Council, good afternoon. And I loved my job. Cardamone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then for the Honorable Richard Conway Casey of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 2007, I was accepted to the U.S. Department of Justice's honors program, and I joined the civil division in the federal programs branch. I represented federal agencies and officials. I worked on high-profile litigation involving constitutional claims, administrative procedure act claims, and other challenges to statutes, policies, and agency decisions. As I mentioned, I spent 18 years there. Just a few weeks ago, I began my work as acting city solicitor. I want to briefly share with you my vision for the law department. Pittsburgh deserves the best. That means providing excellent legal analysis and generating creative ideas to accomplish the city's objectives within that legal framework. That means using the tools available to us to pursue the city's interests through affirmative litigation. And that means elevating the work that we do and the manner in which we do it to the next level so that other cities look to Pittsburgh as a model for how a law department is supposed to operate. These goals are absolutely attainable. I've spent a lot of time recently getting to know the attorneys and staff in the department. And I have been deeply impressed by their knowledge and dedication. I also see enormous potential for more. It starts with a relentless commitment to the law and to our client, the city of Pittsburgh. From that foundation, we must pursue innovative legal strategies, embrace new technology, and push to fulfill this department this department's potential. Pittsburgh deserves nothing less. Thank you again for the chance to speak with you today. I would be happy to answer your questions. Thank you. And we'll just start at the top and work our way down. Councilman Schlossberger. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And thank you, Acting Solicitor Marcus, for your opening remarks and for your willingness to serve in this position. And you know, judging by the first few meetings that we've had together and your resume and your presentation, we're we're certainly fortunate to have you in this role and seeking this role. And I agree that we we have talent and institutional memory and history in the law department that's really valuable. So I guess starting there, we um we always have room for, I know that every department always seeks more resources, more staff, more talent, more ability to you know attract more talent, and I know that's also true in the law department, and unfortunately, we're in a very lean year this year, and so we're we're we're going to probably need to approach that kind of building back in future years. But that said, what do you in the time that you spent in the law department so far? What do you see are the biggest opportunities for if we could for bolstering the department internally to be able to avoid some of the really costly outside council contracts that we have? Are there certain issue areas, or if you don't even have that at the ready in the moment, um, so this a simple sort of yes or no answer could be could be helpful. But are you seeing those kinds of opportunities already that are already apparent within the law department? I'm I am still in the process of analyzing, you know, where we're going to, if we're gonna bring in more people in and where those people will serve. Um I see opportunities to grow the department within the budget that we have. Uh I'm working on, for example, this summer having some modifications for our summer law clerk program to make it more attractive and to use it as uh a tool to recruit. Um as to your question about avoiding outside counsel fees.