NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 11 (AP) — Wendell Gauthier, a lawyer who won billions of dollars for victims in suits over silicone breast implants and hotel fires before taking on the tobacco Industry, died today. He was 58.

The cause of death was liver cancer, said Julie Calzone, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gauthier's firm.

Mr. Gauthier had a striking record of legal victories, winning huge judgments for victims of the crash of a Pan American World Airways plane in a suburb of New Orleans, Kenner, in 1982 and hotel fires in 1980 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and in 1986 at the Dupont Plaza in San Juan, P.R., as well as for women injured by silicone-gel implants.

It may be a suit that he lost that made Mr. Gauthier's legal mark. Secret tobacco company documents unearthed by his team provided valuable ammunition to force cigarette makers into a historic $246 billion settlement with the states.

"He never found a fight that he was afraid to fight," the lead counsel for the states, Attorney General Mike Moore of Mississippi, said. "He was someone who was always willing to represent the underdog, to try unbroken ground."

Although previous suits had focused on smoking as a cause of illness or death, Mr. Gauthier changed direction. His suit said the manufacturers had committed consumer fraud, contending that the industry had hidden its knowledge of the health hazards of smoking for years and had manipulated the nicotine level of cigarettes to keep smokers addicted.

The suit was dismissed. But others based on the same grounds were filed in the name of the 50 states, leading to the settlement in 1998.

"I'm not a good Samaritan," Mr. Gauthier said in an interview in 1993. "I'm in it to make money. But you like to think that you can cure some social ills. And tobacco is a deadly ill, a social ill."

Mr: Gauthier (pronounced GOchay) grew up in Acadia Parish in Cajun country.

He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and worked his way through night law school at Loyola University.

Mr. Gauthier had close ties with Gov. Edwin Edwards, a four term legend who is appealing his conviction in a corruption case. Mr. Gauthier's father managed Mr. Edwards's first campaign, for the Crowley City Council in 1954.

Mr. Gauthier and John Cummings represented families of the 87 people killed in the MGM Grand fire, settling for $208 million. An additional $140 million in settlements and judgments came out of the collapse of a walkway in 1981 at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Mo., in which 114 people were killed.

After the Pan Am crash in 1982, Mr. Gauthier won $10.1 million for the family of an 11-year-old who was killed on the ground. He also worked on a plaintiffs' committee that worked out a $4.25 billion settlement in 1998 with women who said breast implants had injured them.

Phil Whittmann, a longtime defense lawyer, said: "He had a way with juries that was absolutely remarkable. At the same time, he got along with his adversaries and conducted himself in an ethical and trustworthy manner."

Surviving are his wife, Anne, and three daughters.