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Sutherland's Atlanta Office Loses Prominent Husband-and-Wife Duo
John A. Chandler retires from firm to pursue detainee work; Elizabeth V. Tanis moves to King & Spalding
Fulton County Daily Report
November 12, 2008
The husband-and-wife duo of John A. Chandler and Elizabeth V. Tanis left Sutherland on Friday.
Tanis, a professional liability litigator, accepted a partnership at King & Spalding, and Chandler said he resigned from Sutherland to pursue his work representing Guantanamo Bay detainees and other interests.
Both have been longtime leaders in the Atlanta legal community, as they also were at Sutherland.
"Sutherland is a great firm that I love very much," said Chandler, who spent his entire 36-year career at the firm and headed Sutherland's litigation practice until stepping down from the post in May. Like his wife, he focused on professional liability defense -- plus securities and class action matters.
"I'm turning 65 and want to think about my life," Chandler said, adding that his decision to retire from the firm was "completely amicable."
Chandler has led Sutherland's pro bono representation of six Yemeni detainees imprisoned at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2005, when the firm filed habeas corpus petitions on their behalf. Since then, this work has become a significant and time-consuming pro bono endeavor for him -- as well as several other Sutherland lawyers involved in the effort.
Chandler acknowledged some interest in a potential role in the Barack Obama administration on matters regarding Guantanamo detainees, but he said his plans still are shaping up.
"They have both been contributors to the firm, and we wish them well," said Mark D. Wasserman, the firm's managing partner. Sutherland does not have a mandatory retirement policy where partners are de-equitized at 65, as is the policy at many firms, he said.
"Beth saw what she thought was a good opportunity for her," said Wasserman, adding that Chandler will continue working with the firm on paying client matters as well as its representation of the detainees.
Sutherland will continue to devote the same resources to its Guantanamo cases as it always has, he said, noting that Richard G. Murphy Jr., a partner in the firm's Washington office, will head up the firm's detainee team now.
Chandler, who is a past-president of the Atlanta Bar Association, received a leadership award from the group for his work with the detainees in 2006 and this year was similarly honored by Emory University Law School and the Emory Public Interest Committee.
Tanis, 53, became one of the highest-ranking women at Sutherland in her 22 years at the firm. She headed the firm's professional liability practice and also has served on its executive committee.
Tanis said in a King & Spalding statement that her new firm offers her "an extraordinary platform to expand the geographic reach of my practice, particularly on high-exposure accountant liability matters."
Tanis' focus is on accounting firms, and her extensive trial experience includes several high-stakes cases representing PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2004, for instance, she and Chandler won a dismissal with prejudice for the Big Four accounting firm in a $500 million accounting fraud claim brought by Mariner Health Care in Fulton County State Court.
The head of King & Spalding's Atlanta litigation practice, Jeffrey S. Cashdan, said the firm "hopes and expects" that Tanis will bring PricewaterhouseCoopers work to the firm, adding that it's up to the accounting firm to make that decision.
At Sutherland, Wasserman said his firm expects to keep representing PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Beth is not taking any significant current matters. She has a great relationship with them and we do as well," he said.
Cashdan said King & Spalding recruited Tanis because her accounting liability practice "is elite and an area of strategic growth for the firm," referring to the growth plan initiated in 2006 by Robert D. Hays Jr. after he became the firm's chair.
"There are not many lawyers in the country with such an impressive resume in this area," said Cashdan. "She's a leader in the Atlanta legal and civic community and that is also important to us," he added.
Tanis is the president of the ACLU Foundation of Georgia and serves on the board of directors for Georgia Appleseed and the board of visitors for Georgia State University's law school.
