
Lawrence E. Abbott
Position:
Of CounselLocation:
650 Poydras Street, Suite 1950, New Orleans, LA 70130E-Mail:
labbott@cottenschmidt.comTel:
Practice Areas
Admiralty and Maritime
Appellate Practice
Arbitration and Mediation
Business Law and Business Transactions
Class Actions
Commercial Litigation
Construction Law
Employment and Labor
Environmental Litigation
Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA)
Health Care and Hospital Law
Mass Torts and Toxic Tort Litigation
Medical Malpractice
Oil and Gas / Energy
Personal Injury
Planning and Zoning
Premises and Products Liability
Real Estate
Admissions
- State Bar of Louisiana
- State Bar of Texas
- District of Columbia
- United States District Court, Eastern, Middle, & Western Districts of Louisiana
- United States District Court, Southern District of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits
- United States Supreme Court
Education
- B.A., St. Edward’s University, 1967
- J.D., Tulane University Law School, 1972
Year Began Practicing Law
1972
Military Service
Louisiana National Guard, 1969-1975
Honors & Affiliations
- DuPont’s “Leader’s Circle Award”
- New Orleans City Business Leadership and Law Class of 2009
- Sager Award for the Southwest Region of the United States in 2008, given annually by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association to firms who excel in the development and promotion of females and people of color within the legal industry
- New Orleans Bar Association
- Louisiana State Bar Association (where he has been an Assistant Examiner, Committee on State Bar Administration, since 1994)
- Louisiana Bar Foundation
- American Bar Association
- Maritime Law Association of the United States
- Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute
Featured Articles, Publications & Presentations
- Featured in article on October 16, 2000, in “Texas Lawyer.”
- Featured in article in July / August 2003, in “Diversity & the Bar.”
- Featured in article in February 2007, in “The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel.”
- Featured in article in January 2008, in “Louisiana Super Lawyers.”
- Featured in article in March 2009, in “New Orleans CityBusiness” having been selected to “CityBusiness’ Leadership in Law.”
- Featured in article in January 2011, in “Louisiana Super Lawyers.”
Representative Experience
Larry Abbott’s career has focused upon and consisted primarily of trial practice. Notably, Mr. Abbott has tried in excess of 160 cases where more than $1,000,000.00 was at stake, in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Montana. The predominant focus of his practice has been in the areas of Products Liability, Toxic Exposure, Civil Litigation, Railroad Defense Litigation, Business Litigation, Admiralty Law, Corporate Law, and Class Actions. Specific trial issues have involved, without exclusion:
- Claims of individuals of exposure to allegedly toxic chemicals;
- Multiple, simultaneous deaths offshore in the Gulf of Mexico;
- A maritime casualty involving eleven deaths and three burn survivors aboard a vessel;
- Alleged destruction of thousands of acres of pecan orchards as the result of exposure to a fungicide;
- A commercial litigation case in which plaintiffs alleged that our client breached a contract for the sale of nitrogen oxide emission reduction credits;
- A challenge by a homebuilders’ association to the constitutionality of two construction ordinances that had been promulgated and put into effect by our client; and
- Platform damage and down-hole reserve losses sustained by two clients as the result of faulty work performed by a contractor.
Mr. Abbott’s current and past clients include E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, The Chemours Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Union Carbide Corporation, The City of Slidell, Louisiana, The Port of New Orleans, Golden Nugget, Inc., Chubb North America Claims, Liberty International Underwriters, numerous syndicates at Lloyd’s of London, Cinemark USA, Inc., ConocoPhillips, and many others.