DeKalb school board, law firm reach new deal that erases $30… | www.myajc.com

Responding to public pressure to reduce legal bills, the DeKalb County school board on Monday authorized a new contract with its lawyers in a long-running lawsuit that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, with no end in sight.

DeKalb has been battling its former construction manager Heery International Inc. since 2007. The district has been seeking more than $100 million over allegations of billing fraud and mismanagement, but so far taxpayers have been the ones paying. Legal fees and court expenses have cost $18 million, while the district’s law firm, King & Spalding, has piled up another $30 million in unbilled lawyers’ time that would come out of any settlement or judgment.

Signaling his firm’s willingness to strike a new deal that wipes the billing slate clean, Robert Khayat Jr., a lawyer with King & Spalding, emerged from a private meeting with the school board on Monday to say publicly that his firm would write off the $30 million, while also assuming all other costs associated with the case.

“King & Spalding will see the case through to the end without any additional expense to the school system,” Khayat said. He said the firm still believes the case can be won but that politics might have forced a premature, and unfavorable, end. DeKalb, he said, “should not have to walk away from a meritorious case because of financial pressure.”

That pressure has amounted to nearly $100,000 a month, according to interim Superintendent Michael Thurmond.

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