Ga. Supreme Court suspends former Atlanta mayor's law license

<p>The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday suspended former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell's state legal license, a move the court called "tantamount to disbarment."</p><p>Campbell voluntarily surrendered his license after he was sentenced in March to 2 1/2 years in prison for tax evasion, though the ruling said his license could be reinstated if the conviction is overturned.</p><p>A former two-term mayor, Campbell presided over Atlanta during a generally prosperous time in the 1990s when the city hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics and the skyline bloomed. He also became the target of a yearslong federal investigation into corruption at Atlanta City Hall, which also led to the conviction of 10 of Campbell's subordinates.</p><p>During the trial, prosecutors tried to prove that Campbell had taken more than $160,000 in illegal campaign contributions, cash payments, junkets and home improvements from city contractors while he was mayor from 1994 to 2002.</p><p>He was convicted of three counts of tax evasion in March and ordered to pay more than $60,000 in back taxes. But a federal jury acquitted him of bribery and racketeering charges stemming from accusations that he lined his pockets with payoffs from city contractors while he was Atlanta's leader.</p><p>Campbell and his attorneys said the acquittal was a vindication, and launched an appeal of the tax evasion charges to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.</p><p>Campbell first made a name for himself as a 7-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., where he integrated the city's school system as the lone black child at Murphey School.</p><p>He came to Atlanta to join a law firm, and at 28, he became a city councilman. Anointed by Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, Campbell sailed to victory in his first mayoral election.</p><p>Although the city's population grew under his watch, he left the city with a budget deficit and failed to fix the crumbling infrastructure. His successor, Mayor Shirley Franklin, coasted to victory after promising to clean up what some saw as Campbell's mess.</p>