Courtesy of Uber.

Amidst ongoing controversy over whether its high-end app-based livery service is legal or not, Uber has hired a well-connected D.C. lawyer to represent its interests and argue on its behalf.

TBD reports today that Uber has connected with Reed Smith’s A. Scott Bolden, a powerful local lawyer who has done everything from run for office to represent former associates of Mayor Adrian Fenty in a contracting dispute. In a memo to Uber executives, he stressed that nothing the service was doing was illegal.

But in an article published in the Post over the weekend, D.C. Taxicab Commissioner Ron Linton, who participated in the sting on Uber that provoked the ongoing legal dispute, insisted that even if Uber in and of itself isn’t the problem, the drivers it contracts to pick up its customers are:

There would have been no violation if the Uber limousine driver who took me to the Mayflower Hotel on Jan. 13 had said, when asked how much the trip cost, something like: “$25 based on a $50 hourly rate if the ride is less than 30 minutes, but $50 if over a half hour. And we have a half-hour minimum.” But he didn’t. He said he wouldn’t know the cost until we got there and the time and distance were calculated, thus converting his service into a taxi. That is the Uber price structure.

As the driver of a taxi charging on a time and distance basis, he is required by law to have an approved meter and to follow the approved rate schedule. He didn’t meet that threshold, and therefore he made an unlawful charge.

Linton continued making the argument today at a D.C. Council hearing on taxicab modernization, stressing that a licensed limo driver contracted by Uber cannot charge by time-and-distance, as Uber does. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who has shown some sympathy to Uber’s cause, seemed to hint that she’d be willing to amend existing regulations to allow Uber’s business model to remain in the District.

In related news, the Post’s Mike DeBonis rode along with two of the District’s 12 hack inspectors — the men and women charged with enforcing taxicab regulations — and wrote about the experience today. I similarly rode along with two of them late last week as they circled the city looking for violations ranging from trip manifests that weren’t filled out to missing hubcaps. Under legislation being considered by the council, more hack inspectors would be hired to better police the city’s 8,500 cabs and drivers contracted by Uber.