On Tuesday, the Brentwood City Council agreed to appoint Thomas Lloyd Smith of Redwood Public Law as its interim city attorney.
According to the agreement, the Counsel billing rate is proposed to be $388 per hour for General Services and $425 per hour for Cost Recovery, Litigation and Specialty Services with higher rates for Partner services, and lower rates for Associate and Paralegal Services. The agreement is capped at a not-to-exceed amount of $250,000.
Smith is set to begin March 6, 2026.
Smith previously served as city attorney for the City of Antioch before resigning in January 2025. A month before the resignation, Antioch Councilmember Don Freitas publicly called for the city to terminate Smith. Smith was hired by Antioch in February of 2019 while he was an attorney with Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson.
While working as an Attorney for Meyer Nave, Smith has been assigned to the City of San Leandro as Assistant City Attorney and has provided legal counsel to the City of El Cerrito, City of Larkspur, and Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. While working for Garcia Hernandez Sawhney, Mr. Smith supported a City, a Special District and several Community College entities. His earlier legal experiences were with two Boston based law firms where he supported public policy issues and provided advisory services for non-profits, star-ups and venture capitalists. Mr. Smith has extensive experience in public law, contract law, conflicts of interest, workplace investigations, employee discipline and DFEH/EEOC matters. He has dealt with issues of the Political Reform Act, Ralph M. Brown Act and the Public Records Act.
Prior to his legal experience, Mr. Smith worked for three years as an Administrative Manager for a global law firm where he oversaw four departments with responsibility for business planning and the profit and loss statement. Mr. Smith also founded and was Executive Director for a Boston based Charter School geared towards grades 6 – 8. He started his professional career as a business analyst for McKinsey & Company in New York.
Smith also served previously on the City of Oakland, Oakland Police Commission.
Previous
- Jan 21, 2025 – Antioch City Attorney Resigns
- Dec. 11, 2024 – Freitas Calls on Termination of Antioch City Attorney, Requests Other Items: “The other I realize may be controversial. When I talk about developing the team between the city council, city manager, and city attorney, I believe that Mr. Smith has served the city well for 6 years, but I would recommend we terminate the city attorney and go out and recruit and hire a city attorney that all five of us have a say in.”
