Scott Cole, Business Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia

Scott Cole is a Partner in the Brunswick office and works with several of the firm’s practice groups. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Scott has a Civil Engineering degree from Vanderbilt University and a Law degree from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law.

Scott is a senior member of the Business Transactions practice group. He focuses his energy on the sale of medical offices, including dental offices, to larger groups. In connection with this, he has worked with many of the larger national and regional DSOs.

He represents clients such as technology, communications, and energy companies on a variety of matters ranging from entity selection, organizational structuring, transaction structuring, and working through both day-to-day and extraordinary business transactions. Scott works with corporate clients to identify strategic goals and assists them through initial planning, negotiations, and project completion.

Scott worked as outside counsel to a suburban Atlanta county and a local water authority, and he currently serves as city attorney for Mansfield, Georgia. In those capacities, he drafted and reviewed various contracts, including GDOT and multi-million dollar construction contracts; drafted various ordinances and resolutions; and advised local officials on land acquisition, policy, and other matters.

Scott is the Chair of the Environmental, Mass Torts, & Land Use practice group. He has over 17 years’ experience handling water supply, environmental, and local government matters with a focus on acquiring permits under Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act. In this arena, Scott has been involved in nearly 20 water supply reservoirs and numerous private developments, representing those clients in front of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Scott has been a member of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s Basin Advisory Council for both the Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee River Basins.

Experience

Business Transactions

Scott focuses his attention on the representation of dentists selling their practice to larger groups and DSOs. In addition, he represents clients, including technology, communications, and energy companies, on a variety of matters and works with them through both day-to-day and extraordinary business transactions. His experiences consist of working with nondisclosure agreements, master development agreements, licensing agreements, financing agreements, due diligence investigations, mergers and acquisitions, and negotiating corporate severances.

In addition to numerous corporate formations, Scott’s representative projects include the corporate reorganization of an international mining company, the sale and licensing of technology copyrights, several multi-location franchise development agreements, and M&A representing both buyers and sellers.

Construction

Scott focuses his construction activities on the representation of clients in cases involving the transport of soil and/or water from construction sites. In addition, Scott has represented governmental entities, private owners, construction managers, contractors, subcontractors, engineers, and architects at all stages of construction. He works with AIA and EJOCC documents to achieve an agreed upon balance of risk and reward.

Corporate & Partnership

Scott serves as outside general counsel to numerous private companies and nonprofit entities. Scott works with corporate clients to identify strategic goals and assists them through initial planning, negotiations, and project completion.

He has counseled real estate, environmental, and technology companies through entity formation, project and product development, financing, and the acquisitions and disposition of assets. As general counsel, Scott has advised clients on employment agreements, stock option agreements, non-disclosure agreements, master consulting agreements, and a host of day-to-day and extraordinary situations that arise when consulting businesses.

Dental

Scott’s transactional experience and corporate government experience comes together in the successful representation of dental practice groups. Scott’s experience is grounded in provided sound legal advice to professionals concerning the day-to-day legal matters encountered by a practice including corporate organization and structure, employment agreements, lease agreements, and business agreements.

Representative projects include:

•Restructuring the corporate organization of a multi-office dental practice
•Drafting the corporate structure for a multi-office orthodontics practice to include a dental support organization (DSO)
•Drafting the documents for a new regional DSO
•Serving as Sellers’ counsel in the sale of a single and multi-office practices to regional and national DSOs
•Serving as Seller’s counsel in the sale of a multi-office orthodontist practice to a national DSO
•Serving as Buyer’s counsel in the purchase of a minority share of an existing practice
•Serving as Buyer’s counsel in the purchase of an existing practice

Energy, Regulatory, & Utilities

Scott has experience in matters involving the financing, acquiring, and permitting of renewable energy projects, including solar and hydropower projects. Scott represents numerous companies in matters before the Georgia Public Service Commission.

In 2019, he successfully represented several regional solar providers in efforts to have 100s of MW of distributed generation projects added to Georgia Power’s Integrated Resource Plan.

Environmental, Mass Torts, & Land Use

Scott understands the current water, land, and green technology issues the facing the Southeast. He works with local government entities to plan, permit and implement solutions to provide long-term reliable water resources to the citizens of those communities.

His representative public water supply projects include:

•Hickory Log Creek Reservoir (City of Canton and Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, Cherokee County, Georgia). Primary client contact during implementation of the permit conditions. Handled preparation of permit documentation, negotiated permit conditions and permit modifications, prepared land acquisition documents and assisted permitees with land acquisition and permit compliance. Section 404 permit granted in 2004.
•Bear Creek Reservoir (Newton County, Georgia). Primary client contact. Handled development of the permit application, drafted analysis of water supply alternatives, managed acquisition of property for the reservoir and for the compensatory mitigation. (permit pending)
•Hard Labor Creek Reservoir (Walton County Water & Sewerage Authority, Walton County, Georgia). Drafted regional analysis of project alternatives, negotiated permit conditions and handled land acquisition matters. Section 404 permit granted in 2004.
•Lake McIntosh (Fayette County, Georgia). Handled permit preparation and acquired compensatory mitigation property. Section 404 permit granted in 2007.

Government Affairs

Scott routinely represents clients in front of local, state, and federal government agencies. His knowledge of different water, energy, and technology issues facing the state’s metropolitan and rural areas makes him a valued addition to the Government Affairs practice group.

He has the ability and experience to represent the client’s interest in local, regional, state, and federal issues, fighting for the best possible outcome for his clients. Representative clients in this arena include engineering, environmental, and technology firms.

Governmental Liability

Scott has experience advising local government officials on policy and other issues, drafting ordinances and resolutions, drafting and reviewing contracts and acquiring land for public purposes. Scott currently serves as the city attorney for Mansfield, Georgia.

Presentations

•Open Meetings Act: What You Should Know
National Business Institute, 2018
•Buying a Dental Practice
Georgia Dental Association, 2018
•Augmentation of Flows in the ACF Basin
Georgia Water Resources Conference, 2017
•Buying a Dental Practice
Dental College of Georgia, Augusta University, 2017

•Surface Water Law in Georgia
Water Laws and Regulations, Half Moon Education, 2017
•Anatomy of a Lawsuit
Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, 2016
•Buying and Selling a Dental Practice
2013
•The Role of Reservoirs
Coosa River Basin Initiative’s Annual Meeting, Panel Speaker, 2012
•Alabama Water Resources
Conference, 2012
•Interbasin Transfers of Water
Georgia Water Resources Conference, 2011
•Water Supply Reservoirs in Georgia
Georgia Chamber of Commerce Environmental Conference, Panel Speaker, 2011
•ACCG County Attorneys Breakfast
Update on the Statewide Comprehensive Regional Water Planning Process, 2010
•Interbasin Transfers of Water
Spring Conference for the American Bar Association’s Local Government Section, Panel Speaker, 2010
•Georgia Water Supply
Update, 2010

Publications

•Construction Law Compendium
2015
•Interbasin Transfers of Water
Georgia Water Resources Conference, 2011
•A year after ruling, our water future is now bright
Atlanta Journal-Constitution; July 14, 2010
•Interbasin Transfers of Water
Georgia State Bar Environmental Law Section, Summer 2010

•Interbasin Transfers of Water
Local Government Section Journal, American Bar Association, 2010

In the Press

Florida vs Georgia “Water Wars” November 7th Hearing Recap

November 14, 2019

Written by Scott Cole, Esq. The Georgia/Florida Water Wars were the topic of a hearing before U. S. District Court Circuit Judge Paul Kelly, Jr. on November 7, 2019. Kelly replaced replaced Ralph Lancaster as the Supreme Court of the United States’ Special Master for the case after the Supreme Courts decision in June 2018.

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