James E. "Jim" Wright III - Lawyer in New Orleans, LA

Jim Wright is a partner in the Maritime and Litigation practicegroups. He represents clients in a broad range of commercial disputes,regulatory investigations, and criminal cases. Jim has more than four decadesof experience as a trial attorney in civil and criminal jury and judge trialsin federal and state courts. His areas of practice include maritime, whitecollar crime, oil and gas regulatory enforcement, environmental, customs,gaming regulatory enforcement, commercial litigation, products liability,personal injury, and professional errors and omissions cases. Jim hasrepresented plaintiffs and defendants in major maritime litigation in a rangeof disputes, including the failure of downhole drilling equipment causing theloss of a well, the failure of mooring equipment on a deep water drilling rig,defense of civil claims arising out of the hijacking of a container ship bySomali pirates, and the sinking of a bulk carrier vessel in the North Atlanticwith the loss of the crew of 37. He has represented numerous clients involvedin federal grand jury investigations arising out of alleged environmentalcrimes and other federal crimes. He has also represented clients in hearingsbefore US Coast Guard Marine boards of investigations and other US Coast Guardinvestigations of marine casualties and accidents. He also advises andrepresents oil and gas clients before federal and state agencies on mattersrelating to enforcement of oil and gas regulations involving decommissioningorders. On behalf of gaming licensees, he appears before gaming regulatorybodies in connection with gaming enforcement actions. Prior to joining JonesWalker in 1980, Jim served as an assistant US attorney in the Criminal Divisionof the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where heworked in the major drug traffic unit and the general crimes unit, handlingfederal grand jury investigations and prosecuting mail fraud, perjury, customscrimes, conspiracies to import and distribute controlled substances, falsestatements to government agencies, theft of government information,environmental crimes, and kidnapping cases.