Wendell H. Gauthier
54, of Metairie, La.'s Gauthier, Downing,
LaBarre, Beiser & Dean
CONSIDERED A PIONEER in mass torts, playing a critical role in many of the biggest early cases, including the Union Carbide gas disaster litigation, as well as the fires at the MGM Grand and the San Juan Dupont Plaza hotels, in both of which, as lead plaintiffs' counsel, he won settlements of more than $200 million; created the plaintiffs' bar's attack on the American tobacco industry after the death by cancer of his best friend and is credited with getting lawyers who hated each other to unite against a common defendant; continues as chairman of the Castano class action committee and runs the coordinated plaintiffs' effort in this litigation, including its center for research in New Orleans; also involved in numerous other class actions and products liability lawsuits; a lead counsel in the breast implant action against Dow Chemical Co. in Louisiana; last month, won the largest verdict ever in a prod· ucts liability action in Louisiana, $58 million against ADT Security Systems, a fire protection services company, over the fire that destroyed the New Orleans Fairgrounds race track in 1993.