James E. "Jim" Wright III

Jim Wright is a partner in the Maritime and Litigation practice groups. He represents clients in a broad range of commercial disputes, regulatory investigations, and criminal cases. Jim has more than four decades of experience as a trial attorney in civil and criminal jury and judge trials in federal and state courts. His areas of practice include maritime, white collar crime, oil and gas regulatory enforcement, environmental, customs, gaming regulatory enforcement, commercial litigation, products liability, personal injury, and professional errors and omissions cases. Jim has represented plaintiffs and defendants in major maritime litigation in a range of disputes, including the failure of downhole drilling equipment causing the loss 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 by Somali pirates, and the sinking of a bulk carrier vessel in the North Atlantic with the loss of the crew of 37. He has represented numerous clients involved in federal grand jury investigations arising out of alleged environmental crimes and other federal crimes. He has also represented clients in hearings before US Coast Guard Marine boards of investigations and other US Coast Guard investigations of marine casualties and accidents. He also advises and represents oil and gas clients before federal and state agencies on matters relating to enforcement of oil and gas regulations involving decommissioning orders. On behalf of gaming licensees, he appears before gaming regulatory bodies in connection with gaming enforcement actions. Prior to joining Jones Walker in 1980, Jim served as an assistant US attorney in the Criminal Division of the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where he worked in the major drug traffic unit and the general crimes unit, handling federal grand jury investigations and prosecuting mail fraud, perjury, customs crimes, conspiracies to import and distribute controlled substances, false statements to government agencies, theft of government information, environmental crimes, and kidnapping cases.