Aren’t there any SC lawyers who can handle a $350 million bond sale?

Santee Cooper officials apparently didn’t think so.

That upset SC lawmakers who complained no state law firms were asked to work on the $350 million deal, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.

That’s not surprising since so many lawmakers make their living by practicing law.

Rep. Murrell Smith of the House Ways and Means Committee, a Sumter attorney, called the decision to give the job to out-of-state lawyers “troubling.”

Smith and other members of the SC Joint Bond Review Committee said Santee Cooper’s claims that it provides work to state businesses was a reason they didn’t sell the utility after the failure of its $10 billion nuclear debacle.

“That was part of the selling point that got you to continue doing business,” Smith said.

Instead Santee Cooper is now operating under recently enacted reforms that give legislators more oversight of its operations and financial transactions.

The legislation required Santee Cooper to get commission approval for its $350 million bond sale.

Utility officials retained New York-based Nixon Peabody.

This led to tense questions of senior management and the board now led by former lawmaker Peter McCoy.

Lawmakers said they could not believe Santee Cooper hired the same lawyers who advised them on a $638 million debt deal that set off a Statehouse firestorm last year.

That bond sale was called an end-run on legislators who were reviewing bids to sell the heavily-indebted utility.

Santee Cooper officials admitted they didn’t seek proposals in-state.

Pamela Williams, their general counsel, said many attorneys had conflicts of interest because their firms represented clients suing the utility over the nuclear project.

Smith said that if they denied or delayed the sale, interest rates could rise and lead to higher power bills for customers like the member-owners of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperatrive in Lexington County.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter suggested Santee Cooper extend an “olive branch” by hiring a South Carolina law firm to assist on the sale.

Smith said that will “cost more.”

“We will proceed in that fashion,” said Williams who vowed that they will “never be before you without South Carolina bond counsel again.”

Asked how much Nixon Peabody is to be paid, Williams said she didn’t have the exact figure but fees are usually based on a percentage of the sale proceeds. At 5%, the fee would be $17.5 million.