Shakespeare's modified missive is playing out in a backroom political drama as the Salt Lake County Council duels with the district attorney over the council's attempt to hire its own lawyer.

Democratic District Attorney David Yocom argues the council can't. It's much ado about the law, he says. It's simply illegal.

But council members counter they can. That's why they voted 7-2 across party lines last fall to create the position. Then they tapped former longtime Deputy District Attorney Karl Hendrickson for the job, setting up a power struggle with Yocom.

Members of the council's executive committee will huddle with the DA this morning behind closed doors in search of a truce. If none comes, Utah's Republican attorney general could be called on to play peacemaker.

Neither side is budging in the brouhaha, which erupted last November and has county insiders harking back to the political tug of war between the now-defunct County Commission and former County Attorney Doug Short.

As they forged the 2006 budget, council members funded an attorney slot in the $120,000-range. A lawyer to call their own, they reasoned, could provide quick advice on all manner of policy changes.

"There's not a legislative body worth their salt that does not have legislative council," argues Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch.

The council selected Hendrickson, a respected ex-civil division director for the DA who has since agreed on a job description the council sent to the Career Services Council. That group wants an outside legal opinion - perhaps from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff - on the propriety of the post.

Yocom says the job should be deemed illegal. "That's what I said [last fall] and that's what I still believe."

But, according to Hatch, Yocom had no objection to the council getting its own attorney "so long as it was an attorney of no repute."

"We go out and hire the finest public official in the state - then he has a problem," Hatch says. "We can't hire the best because the DA is jealous? It's really weird."

The question isn't the person who fills the job, Yocom insists. "The question is whether the job itself is legal."

Hendrickson, currently counsel for the Utah Association of Counties, could not be reached Monday for comment.

Council Chairman Cort Ashton, a Republican who initially opposed the move, now supports it, provided the council gets the historically nonpartisan Hendrickson.

"I was concerned about the institutional dynamic and escalating this ongoing battle that flares up between the DA and the council," Ashton says. "If anybody can assuage that, it's Karl."

Besides, Ashton says, the new lawyer would not take over the district attorney's function since "99 percent of it would be transactional legal work, not really adversarial issues."

Democratic Councilwoman Jenny Wilson - who has pushed hot-button changes such as campaign-finance reform, gift bans and domestic-partner benefits - says having a full-time attorney would be "a real benefit" when vetting such issues.

If the council and Yocom fail to reach an agreement, Republican Councilman Michael Jensen says the question will fall to the GOP attorney general.

But Hatch worries even that opinion could be rejected by Yocom, perhaps plunging the county into court.

"Why go through the sham and just embarrass the AG?" he asks.

djensen@sltrib.com