As the first week of trial in the legal malpractice suit against Alston & Bird concluded Friday, former partner Jack Sawyer—accused of mishandling a family company’s affairs and allowing the eldest sibling to abscond with about $1.5 million—took the witness stand to rebut the earlier pummeling he took at the hands of plaintiffs counsel.

Sawyer said he was as surprised as anyone to learn former manager Maury Hatcher cashed out his interest in the family company, Hatcher Management Holdings LLC, paying himself an inflated price on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars in self-dealing fees.