Becnel on the banks of the Mississippi River near his hometown of Garyville, La. Misty Keasler
Browse the BusinessWeek Archive
Daniel Becnel Jr., speed dialing over a speaker phone, places a call to a lawyer for a defendant in the British Petroleum-Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill.
"This is the king of torts calling," he says when he reaches the attorney's executive assistant.
"Oh," she says. "Then it must be Danny Becnel."
Becnel, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, nods appreciatively from his mahogany desk strewn with an impressive pile of legal papers. It's from here, in a French colonial-style office in Reserve, La., population 10,000, that he orchestrated the filing of the first federal lawsuit eight days after the Apr. 20 blowout, and where he tracks the legal squadrons gathering to sue BP (BP) and its contractors for claims that experts say could add up to a half-a-trillion dollars or more. About 110 suits have been filed so far, according to Becnel, and dozens more appear to be on the way.
"So where the hell is Jimmy?" Becnel says to the assistant on the phone.
The sought-after party is in a meeting, but the assistant promises a quick return call. Before hanging up, she says: "Danny, would you give me some inside scoop, because I really enjoy hearing things before they get to the lawyers here."
"Now, why do you think I know stuff?" he asks.
She laughs: "Because you're the one who has the direct-dial phone to the White House."
As the spill spreads, waves of lawyers have followed. Becnel, as is his custom, is surfing out front. So far, he and partnering law firms have filed nine federal suits—representing Louisiana commercial fishermen, a New Orleans area oyster restaurant, and Key West charter boat operators, among others—and they're preparing to file three or four more.
Becnel, 65, is soft-spoken. In his khakis, open-collar shirt, and fondness for breaking out dog-eared volumes on industrial safety, he might be mistaken for an engineering professor. In fact, he has represented plaintiffs in some of the highest-profile class actions in American history, from fen-phen diet pills and Big Tobacco to Dow Corning breast implants and the recent Toyota (TM) sudden-acceleration cases. He demurs as to whether he actually has a direct line to the White House, though he openly admires the President, and Bradley Becnel, one of his four children, is an advance man for the Obama Administration, helping set up Presidential visits all over the world.
Addressing reports circulating on a spill litigation website that U.S. Navy submarines are tracking the oil spill, Becnel says it was his attorney brother, Robert Becnel, who contacted his "close personal friend" U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus about the need for the government to monitor where the oil is going. (A Defense Dept. spokesman says the Navy has provided skimmer boats and other equipment to the spill-containment effort but knows of no submarine involvement.)
Becnel has plenty of competition in the BP litigation stakes. The spill, says Jerrold Parker, a Bonita Springs (Fla.) lawyer, may turn into "the largest disaster in American history" and is already a mass tort bonanza. A recent seminar sponsored by the Louisiana State Bar Assn. at New Orleans' downtown Sheraton Hotel, at which Becnel was one of the speakers, attracted about 300 tort attorneys from around the country. "Ultimately, you're talking about thousands of lawyers being involved," says Richard J. Arsenault, a dean of the Louisiana tort bar who is working several cases with Becnel.
Post a comment about this story in Reader Discussion…
Track and share business topics across the Web.
RSS Feed: Most Read Stories
RSS Feed: Most E-mailed Stories
RSS Feed: Most Discussed Stories
About Advertising EDGE Programs Reprints Terms of Use Disclaimer Privacy Notice Ethics Code Contact Us Site Map Press Room
©2010 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
Read Full Article »