Areas of Focus

Civil Trial and Appellate Matters

We are Louisiana litigators who have honed local expertise in the unique intricacies of the State’s civilian code. Our lawyers include former law clerks for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, as well as a current prosecutor for the State.

We’ve successfully litigated cases implicating the peculiarities of Louisiana redhibition (warranty) and products liability law, as well as the State’s evolving negligence framework, including the distinctions between intentional tort and negligence, the interplay with workers compensation, and the array of damages that are implicated in these suits.

Our firm’s reach simultaneously extends beyond Louisiana, and our lawyers are uniquely positioned to bring value to cases in any jurisdiction or venue, particularly given our wide-ranging areas of specialized expertise in environmental emissions, regulatory compliance, and industrial failures, as well as securities, M&A, antitrust and other commercial or financial disputes.

We frequently represent plaintiffs and defendants in complex litigation multidistrict litigation (MDLs), class actions, and other complex litigation involving products liability, toxic torts, cryptocurrency and other investor fraud.

We have represented Louisiana municipalities and public bodies, including school boards, hospital districts, parish and city councils, and state agencies, in addition to private parties in these complex matters, and our attorneys often serve in leadership roles by court appointment in prosecuting or defending these suits.

We have mastered environmental litigation of all kinds, including litigation involving the Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Oil Pollution Act (OPA), Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability (CERCLA), and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).

Many of our environmental matters are emissions cases, involving medical monitoring and fear of cancer, while others involve remediation of contamination and equipment removal on private land, public land, and in state and federal waters. Our lawyers pioneered litigation against oil and gas operators to plug and abandon (P&A) low- and non-producing oil and gas wells, and we now represent public and private plaintiffs in similar cases across the country.

Our specialized environmental litigation further includes permitting, compliance, and litigation involving disputes over rights of way and expropriation litigation, as well as due diligence and other advice concerning environmental liabilities in a transactional setting.

We advocate on behalf of a variety of stakeholders in sophisticated financial suits. We represent victims of Ponzi schemes, embezzlement and fraud involving traditional securities, as well as crypto assets and other cutting edge financial products. We also represent customers and competitors harmed by anticompetitive conduct in violation of the Sherman Act and the state antitrust laws. And we represent buyers, sellers, and professional servicers in M&A and other business disputes in both litigation and commercial arbitration. Our expertise in this practice area is bolstered by the technical experience and training of our lawyers, which include former deal attorneys and economists.

Our team includes several engineers and a license patent attorney with particular expertise in the design, construction, operations, and/or turnaround of industrial plants. Our work in this area involves failures relating to refineries, petrochemical plants, offshore rigs, platforms and drill ships, as well as the design and failure of oil and gas wells, subsea equipment, waste disposal facilities and landfills.

Our attorneys have significant experience in other construction-related matters, including litigation concerning the structure and integrity of roofing, drywall and other building products, disputes arising from issues with building envelopes, such as mold, contamination and other releases, and complex proceedings involving high rise hotel developments, lower rise hotels and mixed use developments, well known sporting arenas, schools, hospitals and other commercial buildings.

We represent lawyers, accountants, and engineers as both plaintiffs and defendants in suits for fiduciary breach, malpractice, and other matters involving professional liability. We have developed particular expertise in disputes involving legal fees and, through our representation of legal professionals, we have developed a thorough understanding of the rules of professional conduct and their application to evolving technology in the practice of law.