Prominent law firm sues attorney for Jindal over Coushatta scandal

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 11, 2008 - Page: 10A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The firm of one the nation’s most prominent lawyers has filed a lawsuit against Jimmy Faircloth, the chief attorney for Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The lawsuit contends that Faircloth stole a client — the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana — involving an effort to collect $32 million lost in the scandal surrounding Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

“It’s a completely frivolous suit,” Faircloth said Tuesday. He is Jindal’s executive counsel.

Faircloth said he suspects the Provost and Umphrey Law Firm LLP of Beaumont wants part of any settlement that might be hammered out with Abramoff and others.

According to the lawsuit petition, Faircloth in 2005 “had maligned and falsely denigrated Provost Umphrey, and had intentionally interfered with Provost Umphrey’s contractual attorney-client relationship with” the Coushatta Tribe.

The Texas firm claims Faircloth “improperly solicited” work from the Coushatta Tribe and got the firm fired.

“There was a change of government at the Coushatta council,” Faircloth said. “The new council hired our firm. We came in. We reviewed the file. The new council, whom we represented, instructed us to terminate the other firm.”

“The client has every right to do that,” said Charles Elliott on Tuesday. At the time, Elliott was a partner of Faircloth’s in the firm that has become Vilar & Elliott LLC after Faircloth became executive counsel.

Walter Umphrey, the managing partner of Provost and Umphrey, is one of the nation’s best-known plaintiff’s lawyers. He won several billion-dollar verdicts involving injuries arising from asbestos and tobacco. Umphrey did not return two calls seeking comment.

The Provost Umphrey lawyer handling the Coushatta Tribe was Joe Kendall, Elliott said. Kendall was a federal judge in Dallas from 1992 to 2002. Kendall also did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

Kendall and Provost Umphrey were hired by the Coushattas in October 2004 for litigation against Abramoff, public relations consultant Michael Scanlon and their Miami-based law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP.

The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana claimed in the lawsuit filed in November 2004 that Abramoff and Scanlon overcharged and billed for work never done. The tribe is seeking $32 million.

Michael J. Remondet Jr., a lawyer in Lafayette representing the Faircloth firm, argued to move the Umphrey and Provost lawsuit from Allen Parish to Rapides Parish because the lawsuit must be filed where the parties live.