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Parish case keeping attorneys busy |
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
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Page 3 of 4
On the road, in the air
Dantzler, the attorney for the receiver, described how the case figures in the scheme of his work as a partner in the Atlanta office of Troutman Sanders LLP.
Dantzler, one of 600 attorneys employed worldwide by the 100-year-old firm, is an expert in securities litigation, mergers, acquisitions and business ventures, as well as securities and corporate governance.
“In respect to a case like Parish’s, you don’t need to be a large firm to deal with all the questions it raises, but it certainly helps,” he said. “One of the reasons I’ve come to specialize in these kinds of situations is we’ve got the people, the computer systems and all kinds of things that make it possible to take a Parish case on without bringing the practice to a screeching halt.”
Dantzler illustrated his point by saying while the Parish case, and the almost constant travel it has required between Atlanta and Charleston, has affected his ability to meet with clients, he has a team of attorneys he works with that “can keep a case rolling when I have to pay attention to other things.”
Having completed a number of receiverships in the past, he knew coming into the Parish case it would involve an enormous amount of time early on, he said.
“What’s markedly different about this case is Dr. Parish had his fingers in a lot of different pies and had a lot of business relationships outside of the investment pools he ran,” Dantzler said. “He had real estate investments, loans from banks, owned the AJ Davis Clothing stores, and all of that activity makes getting to the bottom of things transpire a little more slowly.”
Prior to his meeting with Parish, Dantzler had begun to think he was going to be able to spend more time in Atlanta.
“I don’t know how long the full-employment aspect of the case will last, but you know early on, it’s par for the course: There’s a lot of anxiety attached to a new case, a lot of emergency type of activity and, honestly, a lot of figuring out who’s who,” he said.
“I think as time goes on, we’ll be able to separate ourselves from the case a bit and let others do the field work, but even then there will still be a lot of supervisory work, deciding what’s important and what doesn’t have to be dealt with,” he added.
Until the outstanding questions in the case begin to get answered, Dantzler predicted it won’t be a very court-intensive case.
“We’ve filed some documents as we’ve reached certain benchmarks in the case, but receivers typically work for a long while before there’s a lot of activity in court,” he said.
It may take years to provide investors and creditors with some kind of return on their investments with Parish, said Dantzler. He is not hopeful that any investors will be made whole.
“Unless we find significant liquid assets, which we have not so far, Parish’s other assets, some of which are highly eccentric and therefore complicated to value, will have to be sold,” Dantzler said.
“I understand that there’s a market for animated art, but I just don’t know yet how big a market there is for high-end watches, writing instruments and Red Skelton clown paintings,” he said.
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