An aggrieved landlord wants to force the company that owns The Flying Biscuit diner into bankruptcy.

The landlord, BV Retail LLC of Charlotte, on Wednesday filed an involuntary Chapter 7 petition against Raving Brands Inc. Atlanta-based Raving Brands owns and franchises The Flying Biscuit, as well as Boneheads fish restaurant and Monkey Joe’s indoor playgrounds.

Hunton & Williams counsel Amy Alcoke Quackenboss in Atlanta and partner Michael Massad in Dallas are advising BV Retail on the matter. Legal counsel for Raving Brands has not yet made an appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

The Chapter 7 filing appears to stem from a settlement the two parties recently reached in federal district court in North Carolina. In that settlement, Raving Brands agreed to pay $206,000 to BV Retail. The consent judgment in the North Carolina case was attached to BV Retail’s Chapter 7 filing in Georgia bankruptcy court.

Last month, BV Retail filed an involuntary Chapter 7 petition against The S&Q Shack LLC, a Shane’s Rib Shack franchising vehicle. Raving Brands is the previous owner of the Shane's Rib Shack restaurant concept. Davis, Pickren & Seydel partner Rutherford Seydel is representing The S&Q Shack in that matter, according to a court document.

In the past two years, Raving Brands has sold some of its other restaurant concepts, including and Shane’s Rib Shack, as well as Moe’s Southwestern Grill.

Now you have a lawyer in the Shane Co. bankruptcy case.

Hunton & Williams partners Bruce Moorhead Jr. in Atlanta and Craig Rasile in Miami are advising SunTrust Banks Inc. in Shane Co.’s Chapter 11 case. SunTrust provided the diamond seller with a $300,000 loan in September, prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing, according to documents in federal bankruptcy court in Colorado.

Shane Co., based in Centennial, Colo., is perhaps best known for its long-running radio advertisements in the Atlanta market proclaiming, “now you have a friend in the diamond business.” Shane Co. filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 12 in federal bankruptcy court in Colorado. All Shane Co. stores remain open.

Rasile is co-chair of Hunton’s bankruptcy practice group. Moorhead, who works out of Hunton’s Atlanta and New York offices, is co-chair of the firm’s lending services practice group.

The Maynard Firm’s George F. Maynard of Atlanta is representing the landlord of Shane Co.’s store at 10885 Haynes Bridge Road in Alpharetta, Ga. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Fairfield & Woods are debtor counsel.

The queue of contenders for the title The Next Atlantic Station continues to grow. And of course it takes lawyers to assemble the plans to make it happen.

The latest movement comes on behalf of the city of Hapeville, which formed its first tax-allocation district (TAD) with the assistance of Hunton & Williams partner Doug Selby. The TAD encompasses the former Ford plant, which Hapeville officials and Jacoby Development Inc. want to turn into a mixed-use development. McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Sharon Gay was Jacoby’s counsel.

The TAD will allow Hapeville and Jacoby to convert the 122-acre site into places to live, work and play. The Hapeville site could also include a new public transit station. MARTA has expressed an interest in placing a stop at the Hapeville Ford plant, and the state of Georgia’s long-simmering plans for a commuter rail line south to Griffin could include a stop at the Hapeville site.

In addition to the Hapeville Ford plant, some other sites that developers think could be converted to a large collection of residences, offices and stores include the former GM plant in Doraville; Fort McPherson in south Atlanta, which is being shuttered by the Department of Defense; and Executive Park on North Druid Hills Road in DeKalb County.

Atlantic Station, which was developed by Jacoby, was built on the site of an old steel plant in midtown Atlanta. Among Atlantic Station’s many amenities are IKEA, Target and Publix stores; hotel and condo towers; restaurants and a movie theatre; and office towers that house some of Atlanta’s biggest law firms, including Arnall Golden Gregory and Burr & Forman. A third office tower, 271 17^th Street, is scheduled to open this year, and law firms also populate its tenant list. Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and labor and employment firm Ford & Harrison plan to move to the new building.

Just thinking out loud: While some of Atlanta’s most-prestigious law firms are keen on leasing space at Atlantic Station, would they lease space in Hapeville or Doraville? If big law firms aren’t interested in office space outside of Midtown, does that leave a big hole in potential tenants for the space?

A court-reporting and legal-technology company founded in Atlanta just got a lot bigger—both in the size of its workforce and in the size of its capital accounts.

In a series of transactions, Accel-KKR acquired an equity stake in Alexander Gallo Holdings LLC of Atlanta. Subsequently, Gallo Holdings acquired Hobart West Group Inc. of Florham Park, N.J. Terms were not disclosed for either of the deals.

The Accel-KKR investment allowed Gallo Holdings to acquire Hobart West, company founder Alex Gallo said. Hobart West had operations in more than 20 states, boosting Gallo Holdings’ total number of offices to more than 60. Gallo will remain president and chief executive of the combined company.

Gallo Holdings’ offerings include court reporting, legal video, trial presentation and staffing professionals. It operates under several trade names, including Brown & Gallo and Jack Daniel Court Reporting.

Accel-KKR is a joint venture that focuses on technology companies and involves two of the most influential investment firms. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. of New York, also known as KKR, is one of the world’s biggest private equity funds with more than $50 billion under management. Accel Partners of Palo Alto, Calif., is a venture capital fund that has invested in Facebook, Real Networks and UUNet.

Gallo Holdings becomes Accel-KKR’s 12th company in its portfolio, including current and past investments. Accel-KKR’s other investments have included CRS Retail Systems and iTradeNetwork.

Powell Goldstein partner Stuart Johnson and associate Hannah Crockett were Gallo Holdings’ local counsel on the transactions, Gallo said. Johnson declined to comment on the deal.

The New York law firm Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch was legal adviser to Gallo Holdings on the merger agreement, Gallo said. Kirkland & Ellis advised Gallo Holdings on issues related to the financing of the deal. Andrews Kurth advised Accel-KKR. Hunton & Williams lawyers in Richmond, Va., were counsel to Hobart West.

Atlanta-based Hunton & Williams partner Ron Lieberman is advising a Texas private equity fund on its proposed takeover of highway-bridge construction firm Meadow Valley Corp.

Insight Equity Management Co. has offered to acquire Meadow Valley for $61.3 million. The management of Meadow Valley is participating in the buyout with Insight Equity, according to a news release. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending approval from Meadow Valley’s shareholders.

Lieberman declined to comment on the deal. He is also working with Dallas-based Hunton partner Andrew Lawrence, according to a regulatory filing.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is advising Meadow Valley. DLA Piper partner Gregory Hall in Phoenix is advising a special independent committee of Meadow Valley’s board.

Meadow Valley, based in Phoenix, builds concrete highway bridges and overpasses and paves highways and airport runways. It operates primarily in Arizona and Nevada. Insight is located in Southlake, Texas.

Hunton & Williams partner Robert Lockwood says his law firm has developed a symbiotic relationship with Denmark’s trade commission.

Danish companies looking to break into the U.S. market rely on Lockwood and his Hunton colleagues for legal advice on setting up shop in America. Hunton relies on its partnership with the Trade Commission of Denmark for a stream of new clients.

Consider the case of Mosbaek A/S, a Danish manufacturer of regulators used to control the flow of water in wastewater treatment plants. After handling some of Mosbaek’s legal work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hunton is now taking on new work for Mosbaek, which wants to expand its sales in the U.S. Lockwood and partner Eric Hanson are exploring whether it makes more sense for Mosbaek to go it alone in its American strategy, or whether the company should form a strategic partnership or a formal joint venture with a U.S. company.

Mosbaek first set up shop in America through the Danish trade council’s Accelerator program, which provides Danish companies with pre-established office space and a contact sheet for U.S.-based business advisers. Hunton is one of those advisers and the firm is frequently called upon by the trade office to provide a bevy of legal services to these Danish entrepreneurs, ranging from intellectual property to software licensing agreements to employment to privacy law.

“These are established Danish companies that already had a product or service in place,” Lockwood said. “They’re not looking for funding. They’re looking to penetrate the U.S. market.”

Other companies with whom Hunton developed a relationship through the Danish trade office include Celenia Software A/S, which develops applications for Microsoft software; shoemaker Euro-Dan Sko A/S; and Get Inside A/S, which makes software that creates three-dimensional visuals of real estate properties.

The Trade Commission of Denmark is an agency attached to Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The commission is based in Atlanta.

The law firm formerly known as Sutherland Asbill & Brennan snagged a piece of the legal work on Altria Group Inc.’s bid to purchase snuff maker UST Inc.

Altria is planning to acquire the maker of Copenhagen and Skoal smokeless tobacco for $11.7 billion in cash and assumed debt. The deal still requires approval from regulators and UST shareholders. Altria plans to sell UST’s snuff products along its own brand of tobacco products, including Marlboro cigarettes.

Working as tax counsel to Altria are Sutherland partners Reggie Clark in Atlanta and Cliff Muller in Washington and counsel David Roby in Washington, according to the law firm.

Clark and Muller have previously advised other corporate offshoots of Altria. Clark and Muller earlier this year were tax counsel to Kraft Foods Inc. on its $2.6 billion spin-off and merger of its Post cereals unit to Ralcorp Holdings Inc. Kraft was spun off from Altria, when the company was known as Philip Morris, in March 2007. Altria still sells its tobacco products under the name Philip Morris USA.

In the deal for UST, a team of lawyers from Hunton & Williams’ New York and Richmond, Va. offices is corporate counsel to Altria, led by partner Jerry Whitson; and Arnold & Porter is Altria’s regulatory counsel, according to a press release and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is corporate counsel to UST and Sullivan & Cromwell is advising a committee of UST’s board.

An attorney who prosecuted Centennial Olympics Park bomber Eric Rudolph—King & Spalding partner Phyllis Sumner—is now trying to help the Atlanta Falcons recover a $3.75 million signing bonus from Michael Vick.

Vick, the former Falcons quarterback who was jailed last year for bankrolling a dog-fighting ring, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Vick said in the filing that his debts total somewhere between $10 million and $50 million.

Sumner, a litigation partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta, is listed as counsel to the Falcons in the bankruptcy papers. While an assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, Sumner was involved in the prosecutions of Centennial Olympics Park bomber Rudolph and former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell.

Sumner declined to comment on the Vick case.

In a court filing Vick’s attorneys blamed his bankruptcy filing on a suit filed against him by his former agent, Andrew Joel of Richmond, Va. In the suit Joel claims Vick reneged on an endorsement deal; Joel subsequently sued the football star for $45 million. Vick’s largest debt in his bankruptcy filing is the $4.5 million that he estimates he owes to Joel Enterprises Inc. of Richmond.

“The Debtor’s goal was to avoid bankruptcy and work out consensual resolutions with each of his creditors who, other than Joel, have been quite cooperative,” a court filing said.

Vick’s attorneys also wrote in the filing that “the bankruptcy case may provide a mechanism for the Debtor to recover assets from certain third-parties who may have taken advantage of the Debtor during the pre-petition period.”

Vick’s filing lists Hunton & Williams partners Hill B. Wellford Jr. in Richmond and Arthur E. Schmalz in McLean, Va. as counsel to Joel Enterprises. Wellford and Schmalz couldn’t be reached for comment.

Two law firms are advising Vick on his bankruptcy reorganization: Crowell & Moring in New York and Kaufman & Canoles in Norfolk, Va.

Some of Vick’s debts arise from his defaulting on loans as a result of his imprisonment. Vick was ordered in May to pay $1.1 million to Wachovia after he defaulted on a loan he used to open Atlantic Wine & Spirits and the Tasting Room restaurant in College Park. Smith, Gambrell & Russell partner Thomas Barton and associate Aaron Tady in Atlanta are counsel to Wachovia Corp. Vick also agreed to repay a $2.5 million loan to Royal Bank of Canada. Poyner & Spruill partner Lisa Sumner in Raleigh, N.C., is counsel to the Canadian bank.

Lawyers from four Atlanta law firms were involved in the recent sale of a DeKalb County trucking company to two Atlanta private equity funds.

Last month Navigation Capital Partners and VVS Capital LLC, both of Atlanta, partnered to acquire James Brown Contracting Inc. of Lithonia for undisclosed terms. Wells Fargo & Co. and John Hancock Life Insurance Co. provided debt financing for the deal.

Hunton & Williams partners Joseph B. Alexander Jr. and Kevin F. Hull and associate Daniel P. Rollman advised Navigation.

Powell Goldstein partner Stuart C. Johnson advised VVS.

Miller & Martin partner David A. Flanigan Jr. and associate Timothy M. Silvis represented James Brown Contracting.

Burr & Forman partner Edgar C. Snow Jr. and associate Lindsey R. Arnold advised Wells Fargo.

Sullivan & Worcester was counsel to John Hancock.

James Brown Contracting owns two businesses – Brown Trucking Co. and JBT Brokerage. Brown Trucking hauls freight for paper and packaging-industry customers.

After a long losing streak, the City of Atlanta’s BeltLine project got its second-straight dose of good news last week when Fulton County Superior Court Judge John J. Goger approved the city’s $120 million bond sale.

Hunton & Williams partner Douglass P. Selby is co-bond counsel to the city. The BeltLine is a proposed network of new parks, trolleys and bike paths encircling the city. It would be built on land that is now mostly abandoned railroad corridors.

The bond validation came a few weeks after the Georgia Legislature agreed to a ballot referendum this fall on whether to allow school boards to participate in certain bond sales. The Supreme Court of Georgia had struck down an earlier BeltLine bond sale, calling it unconstitutional because most of the money would go to the BeltLine, not schools. The BeltLine was one of several so-called tax-allocation district (TAD) financing projects affected by the ruling.

After the ruling, the city of Atlanta scrambled to compile a scaled-down package in which bonds would be backed only by City of Atlanta and Fulton County taxes, Selby said. Without the backing of Atlanta Public Schools taxes, the bond package was reduced to $120 million from $200 million.

If this fall’s ballot referendum is successful, the city of Atlanta plans to pursue additional bond sales which will be backed by school taxes, Selby said. With school board participation, the size of future BeltLine bond sales would increase dramatically. In Atlanta, as in most Georgia communities, up to half of all property taxes are levied by school districts.

However, the city has an additional hurdle to cross, even if the referendum is successful. The Legislature reserved the right to make changes to the underlying law, the Redevelopment Powers Law, if voters approve the referendum.

“It’s likely the Legislature would adopt some sort of enabling act to implement the powers that the voters approve,” Selby said.

The $120 million bond sale, slated for this fall, is the first of what’s expected to be multiple tranches, Selby said. The first series will be used to acquire land for parks, transit rights-of-way and other matters. The city has estimated the total cost to build the BeltLine could reach $1.7 billion over 25 years.

Howell & Associates attorney George L. Howell is also co-bond counsel to the city. Murray Barnes Finister partner Teresa P. Finister is counsel to Wachovia, the lead underwriters. The City of Atlanta attorney is Elizabeth B. Chandler.