After a "sharp" conflict-of-interest debate, the Atlanta-
Fulton County Recreation Authority voted to hire its own lawyers
to serve as bond counsel for the proposed downtown Hawks arena
project "without first considering other law firms for the job,"
according to Henry Unger of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. The
authority voted 6-1 to hire Hunton & Williams and Robinson &
Dixon. Unger notes the issue arose because lawyers for the two
firms, which would issue the bonds used to finance most of the
$215M project, have been involved in the Hawks arena negotiations
for more than two years and have billed "nearly" $200,000 for
that work. Authority member Karol Mason said that "ideally"
other law firms would have been allowed to make a bid, but the
authority is "racing against the clock" to preserve the tax-
exempt status of some of the bonds before January when U.S. Sen.
Pat Moynihan (D-NY) plans to introduce legislation to take away
their tax-exempt status. The authority voted to retain A.G.
Edwards & Sons and M.R. Beal & Co. as bond underwriters (ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 10/18).
