An item of note from the frantic last week of the legislative session mostly slid past the Gold Dome press corps. Last week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Political Insider reported on a lobbying effort by Joel Williams, a partner at the Atlanta law firm Powell Goldstein LLP. Jim Galloway reported that Williams has been representing an organization called the Public Nuisance Fairness Coalition, which, according to Williams’ March 26 disclosure report, exists “TO ENSURE THAT THE LAW OF PUBLIC NUISANCE IS APPLIED AS HISTORICALLY UNDERSTOOD AND THAT PRODUCT LITIGATION IS DECIDED PURSANT TO ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCT LIABILITY LAW.” In other words, Williams is representing companies seeking to avoid lawsuits alleging that their products are “public nuisances” for all sorts of different reasons.

What makes the story interesting is that when asked by legislators of both parties who he was representing, Williams and other lawyers from his firm told the legislators that “attorney-client privilege” prevented them from divulging the members of the Public Nuisance Fairness Coalition. Leaving aside the fact that some of our lawyer friends tell us that the identity of a client is not considered privileged information, some other interesting tidbits have been discovered.

First, Williams’ client somehow managed to leave behind fewer government records than a graduate of any first-rate witness protection program. It does not appear on the state corporation records of Georgia, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, or the District of Columbia. It has not qualified as a foreign corporation doing business in Georgia. In fact, the only official record of the Public Nuisance Fairness Coalition seems to be the form Williams filed.

Second, Williams lists his “client” as being located at “2121 K Street, NW, Suite 6750” in Washington, DC. That particular building does not appear to have a “Suite 6750.” It does, however, have a Suite, which is the headquarters of Global USA Inc., a corporate lobbying firm of the type that populates the “K Street Corridor” of the nation’s capital. What’s more, the telephone number listed by Williams on his disclosure is the same as the number for Global USA.

Third, though Williams did not register until March 26, a partner in Williams’ Washington office participated in a seminar five days earlier entitled “Public Nuisance for Private Gain? Lead Litigation as a Case Study in Abuse of Ancient Legal Principle.”

The latter item may simply be a coincidence — Powell Goldstein is a big firm. If the DC seminar was somehow related to the Georgia lobbying effort, Williams may have been tardy in registering at the state Capitol. Williams likely has a bigger problem with the extent, rather than the timing, of the disclosure. Williams did not disclose Global USA as a client. The Public Nuisance Fairness Coalition does not seem to exist. Williams represented to the Legislature, according to the AJC report, that coalition members were Fortune 500 companies. Williams represented to the Ethics Commission, according to the disclosure, that the group had no members.

If Williams and his clients are creating a shell organization to hide their identities, that raises questions which the State Ethics Commission may need to address. The whole episode also goes to show the contempt that many of the bigwigs who show up at our state Capitol looking for special treatment have for the laws that are supposed to ensure the public can tell who’s looking to influence their elected representatives.

One final update: the Political Insider notes that watered-down language finally made it through the General Assembly as part of SB 305, an emergency management bill sponsored by state Sen. David Shafer. Still no word from Williams or the AJC as to the identity of the clients.