Atlanta Thrashers Ownership Group Settles $195M Malpractice Suit Against King & Spalding

A group that recently sold the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team has settled a malpractice suit against King & Spalding.

Terms of the settlement were confidential, according to the Associated Press, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Am Law Daily.

The $195 million suit, filed in January by the Atlanta Spirit group, had claimed King & Spalding botched a contract governing the group's buyout agreement with former co-owner Steven Belkin. More than five years of litigation with Belkin followed, preventing the sale of the money-losing Thrashers, the complaint had alleged. The suit had sought $14.5 million to cover legal fees in the Belkin litigation, $50 million for the lost value of the Thrashers franchise, and $130 million in team operating costs.

The Belkin litigation settled in December 2010, and the Thrashers were sold to Canadian owners this spring.