A Fayette County attorney has reached a confidential settlement with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund over fees he said he was owed for initiating a voting rights lawsuit five years ago against the county.
“The parties reached mutual satisfaction,” Wayne Kendall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday. He declined to give details about the settlement.
Kendall sued Fayette commissioners and the school board in August 2011 on behalf of a group of black residents and the state and local NAACP. The lawsuit claimed the county's at-large voting system used at the time prevented blacks from being elected to countywide office in the majority white county.
Kendall left the case in 2012 when the NAACP Legal Defense Fund took over. The case was settled earlier this year with the county commission and school board which agreed to create a voting system that has four districts and one at-large or countywide district. Earlier this year, Kendall filed a notice of attorney's lien in the federal lawsuit claiming he was owed $75,932 for his services in bringing the lawsuit against Fayette County.
The Legal Defense Fund is a civil and human rights law firm founded in 1940 by Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
About the Author
