Georgia’s Water Wars Legal Team Steps Down
After 15 years in the tri-state water wars, Georgia’s legal team is leaving. Todd Silliman, of McKenna Long & Aldridge, and Bruce Brown, who has his own firm, cited the heavy demands the fights with Florida and Alabama have placed on their practices. They also said this is a good time for everyone to make a change, after several court decisions in Georgia’s favor in the fight over the use of Lake Lanier as a drinking water source for metro Atlanta.
In an interview with WABE News, Bruce Brown said money was not a factor for the state or the attorneys. He said their hourly rate for the water litigation is confidential, but it’s lower than that charged to most other clients.
“We think we’ve been a bargain,” Brown said. ”And I think the state would agree.”
Brown said the legal teams for Florida and Alabama were probably more expensive for those states.
“The Governor and the Attorney General have described this as the state’s most important case,” Brown said. ”And so, it’s important to put the resources in your legal team necessary to be successful. And we’ve been successful.”
Click here for our interactive history of the water wars.
Governor Nathan Deal named the firm of Kazmarek, Mowery, Cloud & Laseter as the state’s new water wars lawyers.
The office of Attorney General Sam Olens could not provide a current figure for the state’s outside legal expenses by the time of the deadline for this article. But in 2012, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution got an estimate of $8.5 million, with the Atlanta Regional Commission paying another $10.3 million.
The Governor and the Attorney General were not available for interviews.
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