By Jorge Casuso

August 13, 2025 -- The City Council on Tuesday took up a nine-year-old voting rights lawsuit filed by Latino plaintiffs that could drag on for several more years.

The closed session item was added to Tuesday's agenda days after a Superior Court Judge issued an order charting a path for the legal battle that has been winding its way through the courts since June 2016.

The item also was taken up after the Los Angeles Times reported that the law firm representing the City -- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher -- had submitted an $1.8-million invoice to the City of Los Angeles for two weeks of work in May.

As of last November 6, 2023, Santa Monica had been billed $12,803,149 for legal fees by the firm, which is one of the most expensive law firms in the country.

The latest court order in the case bars the two parties from relitigating issues already taken up in Superior Court, Appellate Court and the State Supreme Court, according to attorney Kevin Shenkman, who represents the plaintiffs.

The Court is interested in election results since a Superior Court Judge ruled against the City in 2019 and ordered District elections, Shenkman said.

The judge also is interested in demographic changes that have taken place since the 2020 Census and in having "a conversation about racially polarized voting and how it is shown," Shenkman said.

The next court date is scheduled for the first week of September, with the first phase of the trial to take place in the second or third quarter of next year, Shenkman said.

Like the City of LA, which hired Gibson Dunn to defend it in a sweeping homelessness case, Santa Monica is in dire financial straits after paying $229.8 million to settle with 229 sex abuse plaintiffs ("Council Prepares to Approve Budget as City Faces Dire Economic Straits," June 24, 2025).

"The invoice from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP," the LA Times wrote, "comes as the city (of LA) is already under serious financial pressure, caused in part by rapidly growing legal payouts."

Santa Monica has not revealed how much it has paid the firm over the past two years or what rates it is being charged.

But the LA Times revealed that with "at least 15 of Gibson Dunn’s lawyers billing at nearly $1,300 per hour, the price tag so far equates to just under $140,000 per day over a 13-day period."

Last November, Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Crowley urged both parties in Santa Monica's voting rights case to mediate, noting the case could continue for another four years ("Voting Rights Lawsuit Drags On," November 25, 2024).

"There's a significant chance the California Supreme Court will take it up again," Shenkman said.