Hat tip to several readers including the guy who wrote:
Going to be an awkward Thanksgiving at the Houghtaling household….
First reader to get us a copy of the suit gets a free Slabbed “Shit Floats” T-Shirt. (As soon as we do the design/build 😉 ) The name of the case is: Stephen Huber, Todd Slack, Brian Houghtaling, Rajan Pandit, Charles Thomas v Gauthier Houghtaling and Williams, LLP.
The case has been assigned to Nancy Miller, who beat the Magnum supported Norma Broussard for the Division I spot at the 24th Judicial District. Rut Roh………..
sop
Just a shot at armchair QB’ing:
Slack & Huber went to law school with Celeste (Cessy) Gauthier & Magnum.
Slack and Huber had careers before they went to Gauthier. These guys have some real ethics and academic acumen behind them. Huber at least was a NO DA and USA.
Cessy has nothing upstairs (yes broad brushed stroke there). But she and Magnum both think of the Gauthier firm in terms of rainmaking, flash, dash, influencing the judges and their elections (to the point of picking who will run).
The old story was Murphy had the brains and Wendell had the people skills, he was the rain maker deluxe. So maybe in remaking the firm they tried to remake that old model.
Only Magnum’s people skills and judge picking skills, and judgment, can be…. lacking.
I don’t know where Hough Bro comes in.
Maybe the brains of the new outfit just couldn’t take this **** any more. The house on St. Charles, the Hollywood trips, deals and connections, and of course the BP super-sucker device.
They already had a lawsuit and who knows what that is opening up in terms of discovery of firm accounting and communications and activities.
But obviously this suit will just have lots, lots more.
Just some background and it’s all just rumor.
Murphy was the brains of Gauthier & Murphy? Robert Murphy, 24th JDC Judge whose second wife has a piece of the Redlight Camera pie?{ Wife #1 having preferred the company of her JPSO protector after the Anne Gauthier kidnapping episode out in Kenner.}
Murphy had the good luck of being in the right place at the right time and hung onto Gauthier for dear life. Gauthier was a great director and Murphy took direction well…a match made in heaven.
Fortunately Murphy’s wife#2 had ( and maybe still has) mucho dinero so he could afford to ‘retire’ to a judgeship. Bobby never was shy about hanging with the monied crowd. No class but clout and coins.
Unslabbed – I won’t pretend to be super informed but I will tell you where I got this impression and hopefully you will laugh, because your asking about it has made me think about it some more.
I got this story from a public event where someone spoke… In fact (I’m laughing here, because I’ve been wracking my brain to remember who it was and it’s just coming to me) it might have been Murphy himself and it was after Gauthier had passed. (The more I think about it the more I’m sure it was Murphy himself who told this story.).
The story was when they opened up the shop in Mid City (the original location was by Jeff Davis and Canal?) business was a little slow. Gauthier was moonlighting as a driving instructor (no, seriously) and he was such a people person that he would bring business in from his students and Murphy was the guy who would do the legal research and who would write the pleadings and get it done in court. I forget the whole story now but somewhere along the line one of those driving students turned into their first big case.
This is pre-Metry. And now that I’ve thunk about it some more it was Murphy who told that story. {Which personally I find funny now that I think about it}.
Just a little bit of “history”: Wendell Gauthier was in law school at Loyola at the same time I was there, although I believe he went to night school and graduated a year or so before me. I graduated in May 1971. As I recall his first “BIG” case, it was representing Steve Little and his Family who were horribly burned (and their house destroyed) because of a gas explosion caused by the strict liability and/or negligence of a public utility. The rest is “history”. Ashton O’Dwyer.
Ashton is right. Tele is right, except the guy doing the research and being the “brains” was Pat McCabe.
Gentlemen:
There is a “truism” inherent in “UNSLABBED’S” prior Comment: The “key” to a successful plaintiffs’ practice is getting the case, and keeping others from “poaching” it from you. Once you have the case YOU CAN PISS ON THE TABLE AND YOU’LL STILL WIN, regardless of what Judge or jury you may have. How could Wendle (or “anybody”) have “lost” the Kenner Pan Am case? Or the MGM Grand case? The “key” to those cases was getting the representation of survivors or injured plaintiffs, and the “more” the better. Wendle has been credited with coming up with the idea in the Tobacco case (Castano, who also was in law school at Loyola in the late 60’s or very early 70’s) that the tobacco companies had intentionally laced their product with addictive nicotine and then intentionally failed to warn users of the product. But I really don’t know whose idea that was. In any event, it “worked”, and made MANY plaintiffs’ lawyers all over the country MILLIONAIRES for life, many times over. Ashton O’Dwyer.
“Once you have the case YOU CAN PISS ON THE TABLE AND YOU
Ahston is dead on about Wendell’s break… it came from a gas explosion case.
He got a lot of help from Aaron Broussard and cornered the market on the wrongful deaths that arose from the people who were killed on the ground as a result of the 1982 Pan Am crash in Kenner. Broussard was then Mayor of Kenner and the story is that Wendell was the only lawyer allowed anywhere near the crash scene and he used the privilege well.
I’ve been called many things, but never a “goon”. It was law enforcement “goons” who abducted, brutalized, tortured and falsely imprisoned me on 9/20/05, and have engaged in “covering-up” things ever since. I would guess from the Comment(s) of SOCK PUPPET that Wendel (RIP) and those of his ilk “poached” the “piss-on-the-table” cases away from Sock Puppet. Only the “good” plaintiffs’ lawyers got the piss on the table cases, but there were a lot of such cases, which always seemed to go to the same plaintiffs’ lawyers. Ashton O’Dwyer
Magnum JD pled guilty yesterday in a suit brought by city of new Orleans.
The suit involves “certain activities” which took place at a late night party. Many of his neighbors in attendance at court, as many if his neighbors are horrified that such a man lives next to them.
We never said the man had class.
By the way, I have been hearing alot about the break up of the firm being a ploy.— to fix the “conflict of interest”. This way part of the firm can make money befriending BP, and the other half can make money suing BP.
Does anyone really believe that The son of his Personal Banker, who was cherry picked by Magnum, would go against him? Two others were handpicked, as well, by magnum. Now his brother has some sense and would be genius to leave. He is a good lawyer who should step out of his brother’s shadow. And Hubert would consider it too. But the others, I agree with the post I got this from… Suspicious!
You guys should do some more digging. If he threatens “to drag you before CDC court” save the message. Dont be afraid of magnum.
I personally know every person in this group quite well. The more you write about magnum, the more his head swells.
Check out his wikipedia page. They’ve tagged it as made by him or someone close to him.
Egomaniac.
GF, I would tend to believe that your beliefs are correct that this is a “friendly” split to pursue BP. The lawsuit is strangely drafted, in that it seeks a declaration that the departing attorneys owe “no fiduciary duties.” Hmmmm, sounds like setting the stage for, as you point out, no “conflicts of interest.” As an old friend once said, “when first we practice to deceive….”