Peters

July 17, 2008 | Daily Report Online

The U.S. economy may be in the doldrums, but the federal government keeps plugging away, signing contracts and purchasing assets and services from private companies.While McKenna Long Aldridge partner Jeremy C. Silverman wouldn't say the federal government is water-tight safe from the recession, he offered that federal government contractors seem to be immune from the current economic downturn.

By Andy Peters

6 minute read

March 26, 2009 | Daily Report Online

All manner of forces seemed to be conspiring to thwart the plans of The Sembler Co. and its law firm, Hartman, Simons, Spielman Wood, to open Canton Marketplace. Hartman Simons lawyers have been working on the Cherokee County project, which is opening now in stages, since 2004.One problem was dirt-2.4 million cubic yards of it.

By Andy Peters

6 minute read

June 06, 2006 | National Law Journal

A widespread outbreak of the avian flu could have devastating effects, but the threat of a pandemic could mean big business for law firms.

By Andy Peters

4 minute read

April 18, 2007 | Daily Report Online

WHILE WORKING as a media relations manager in Gov. Sonny Perdue's office, Derrick Dickey often read the daily papers and wondered how certain lobbyists allowed their issues to get such negative coverage."I would do a little bit of Monday-morning quarterbacking and say to myself, 'I can do better than this,'" Dickey said Monday outside the state Capitol's ground-floor snack bar.

By Andy Peters

9 minute read

December 01, 2009 | Daily Report Online

A Hall County jury has awarded $100,000 to an Atlanta woman who says a former friend defamed her in a best-selling novel by including personal characteristics that made her recognizable and then mixing them with other traits that were false and defamatory. The jury of eight men and four women on Nov. 19 found that Haywood Smith, in her novel "The Red Hat Club," defamed her childhood friend Vickie Stewart.

By Andy Peters

6 minute read

March 30, 2007 | Daily Report Online

THE DEBATE over legislation that would allow private companies to tax citizens, issue tax-free bonds, and build roads, sewer lines and school buildings with limited government oversight has grown so intense that lobbyists are fighting over what to call the idea.Representatives for the real estate and home-building industries say the bills create "community development districts" or "infrastructure development districts.

By Andy Peters

7 minute read

November 11, 2008 | Daily Report Online

Management-side labor lawyers have done their job well for decades. After peaking at about a third of the U.S. workforce in the 1950s, only between 7 percent and 12 percent of U.S. employees belong to a union.Both attorneys and union representatives cite the work of traditional labor lawyers as a major factor in unions' decline.

By Andy Peters

6 minute read

December 29, 2006 | Daily Report Online

THE STATE'S JUDICIAL BRANCH has made a yearly habit out of clashing with the governor's office on budget requests. The disputes have centered on whether the judiciary should ask for more money in tight economic times.The judicial branch once again asked for a budget increase in its upcoming fiscal year, at a time when other state agencies were ordered to submit budgets without a net increase in spending.

By Andy Peters

5 minute read

March 27, 2009 | Daily Report Online

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has a checkered past with the state of Georgia. That didn't stop the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority from awarding the Dallas company a $1.06 million contract to run Georgia 400's toll machines.A losing bidder thinks ACS should be stripped of the contract, according to a bid protest filed with the state by the loser's counsel, Balch Bingham partner J.

By Andy Peters

6 minute read

August 14, 2007 | Daily Report Online

ONE MONTH AFTER FBI agents raided the chambers of the Alapaha Judicial Circuit's chief judge in South Georgia, a court clerk in the circuit has pleaded guilty to felony mail fraud and quit his job.Also on Friday, Berrien County Sheriff Gerald W. "Jerry" Brogdon pleaded guilty to the illegal sale of firearms.The court clerk, Daniel V.

By Andy Peters

4 minute read