Paul C. Thibodeaux

Paul Thibodeaux is a partner in Fishman Haygood’s Litigation Section. His practice includes environmental, energy, and construction law; products liability; mass tort and class action litigation; and intellectual property matters for both plaintiffs and defendants. He maintains a diverse practice, representing business interests, as well as individuals and landowners.

Clients trust Paul to provide solutions to complex commercial problems and produce results. With a background in civil engineering, and as a registered patent attorney, Paul skillfully handles multifaceted liability and regulatory issues. He also understands the delicate balance between economic opportunity and ensuring that companies maintain compliance and operate in ways that protect our communities.

In fact, Paul has thrived in some of the most complex commercial litigations in the country for nearly 20 years. He has successfully taken a lead role in many high-profile matters such as the Napoleonville sinkhole litigation; BP oil spill multi-district litigation; and the Hurricane Katrina-related Murphy oil spill class action litigation.

Paul also was tapped to lead the firm’s representation of the developer of the downtown New Orleans property that was under construction to become a Hard Rock Hotel when it collapsed in October 2019. His civil engineering background and experience in other high-profile, complex mass actions makes him ideal for handing the complex liability and insurance issues in the matter, which involve structural, construction, and product liability issues. There are currently over 100 related cases pending, including six suits claiming wrongful death regarding three fatalities, multiple severe personal injury suits, and hundreds of property damage and economic loss claims brought by surrounding businesses and property owners.

In addition, Paul has tried numerous judge and jury trials involving other complex engineering-related issues, including multimillion-dollar verdicts in favor of plaintiffs involving the misappropriation of proprietary information and the installation of defective products on an oil production spar. He has handled multiple environmental cases regarding refinery explosions and emissions, including Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act claims.

Recently, Paul also successfully represented a landowner in litigation to require a large oil company to plug and abandon wells and decommission an abandoned oil field.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Paul has volunteered with groups like the St. Bernard Project, now known as SBP, an organization which works to shrink the time between natural disasters and recovery.