Partner, Atlanta
303 Peachtree Street, NE
Suite 5300
Atlanta, GA 30308

TEL: 404.527.4050
FAX: 404.527.4198
EMAIL: clong@mckennalong.com

PROFILE

Clay Long is a founding partner and former Co-Chairman of McKenna Long & Aldridge.

Clay's practice focuses on (a) general business and corporate matters, with a concentration in the purchase, sale and merger of businesses, and (b) real estate development and finance. He has represented companies in the food and beverage business such as Coca-Cola Enterprises, The Krystal Company and President Baking Company; in the communications business such as Cablecasting, Ltd., Cable America, CableSouth and World Access; merchant banks and venture capital firms, such as First Capital Management and Alliance Technology Ventures and agriservices, such as Monsanto. In the real estate area, Clay currently represents, among others, Corporate Holdings, Inc., the real estate holding company of John Williams, and Williams Realty Fund I, LLC. For the last several years, Clay has represented the State of Georgia in the Tri-State water wars.

Clay is also active in alternative dispute resolution. He regularly acts as an arbitrator or mediator in complex corporate and real estate disputes, construction disputes, and matters involving valuation, tax, accounting, and financing issues. He currently serves as President of the Georgia Arbitrators Forum.

Clay's passion for many years has been the environment and conservation. He has served as Chairman of the Board of MARTA, which focused on the adverse environmental impacts of sprawl, including gridlock and air pollution. Clay has also served as Chairman of the Georgia Conservancy, where he helped develop its influential smart growth program called "Blueprints for Successful Living."

Clay chaired an Advisory Committee appointed by former Governor Roy Barnes to recommend a program to protect community greenspace. Clay then chaired the Georgia Greenspace Commission, which supervised the granting of over $60 million to local governments for the acquisition of greenspace. Then in January 2004, Governor Perdue appointed Clay to chair his Advisory Council for the Georgia Land Conservation Partnership. The Council proposed a state-wide, comprehensive land conservation plan. The recommendations of the Council were included in the Georgia Land Conservation Act, which was passed in early 2005.

In addition to his conservation activities, Clay has served as President of the Atlanta United Way and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Research Atlanta, the Atlanta Urban League, Birmingham-Southern College, the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library, the Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. In addition, Clay has been President of the Harvard Law School Association of Georgia, a participant in Leadership Atlanta and an Adjunct Professor of Law on mergers and acquisitions at Georgia State Law School.

In 1989, Clay was the first recipient of the Atlanta Bar Association's Leadership Award. In 2002, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Birmingham-Southern College, having earlier been given its Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2004, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Georgia Environmental Council, and the Public Service Award from the Georgia Parks and Recreation Authority. In 2005, Clay has been honored by the Georgian Wildlife Foundation as the "Conservationist of the Year" and by the Georgia Conservancy with its "Distinguished Conservationist" Award.

For many years, Clay has been included in Georgia Trend Magazine's "100 Most Influential Georgians" and in lists of top lawyers in the U.S. and in Georgia. In 2005, 2007 and 2007, he was designated one of "Georgia's Most Influential People" by James Magazine. He has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for over 20 years.