John O'Quinn

John M. O'Quinn (born 1941) is a legendary and controversial Texas trial lawyer and a partner at The O'Quinn Law Firm. His firm has made its business handling plaintiff's litigation, including representing clients suing breast implant manufacturers, medical facilities, and tobacco companies.

Biography

Born the son of an car garage owner in Houston, Texas, O'Quinn graduated from the University of Houston Law Center. O'Quinn served as editor of the Houston Law Review, and won a state moot court championship.

Legal career

Making his name in handling plaintiff's litigation, among O'Quinn's biggest wins are:

• $1 billion verdict in 2006 against Wyeth Laboratory for its diet drug, fen-phen
• $17.3 billion tobacco settlement for the state of Texas
• $100 million for silicone breast implants made by Dow Corning

O'Quinn Law Firm Website -

In total, O'Quinn is estimated to have won $1.5 billion for the firm of O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle of Houston, Texas. Now running his own firm, pending are cases against stock brokers and hedge funds for shorting the shares of weak companies, and against Ford for rollover accidents caused by the Ford Explorer.

O'Quinn received a public reprimand in 1989 from the State Bar after a lengthy investigation into allegations that his firm had wrongfully solicited cases. Family members of victims have charged that they were approached by O'Quinn's lawyers, and their agents after a July 2, 1994 USAir jet crash in North Carolina. In 2007, an arbitration panel ruled that O'Quinn had improperly withheld $18.9 million in settlement money from breast implant clients; the federal court overseeing the breast implant litigation issued an order to show cause why the O'Quinn Law Firm should not be held in contempt of court. On July 19, 2007, the same arbitration panel ordered O'Quinn to pay $35.7 million plus attorneys' fees and interest. The panel upped the award to $41.4 million in September 2007.

Anna Nicole Smith litigation

In February 2007, O'Quinn unsuccessfully represented Virgie Arthur, the estranged mother of the deceased Anna Nicole Smith, in a Florida courtroom to determine who should have control over the decedent's body. O'Quinn was the subject of media scrutiny when he fainted in the courtroom on February 22, 2007. Howard K. Stern sued O'Quinn for allegedly libelous statements regarding the death of Anna Nicole Smith on various nightly TV newscasts.

Donations

In August 2005, his $25 million donation to St. Luke's Episcopal Health System's Health, Hope and the Human Spirit capital campaign was coupled with the renaming of their signature medical tower to the O'Quinn Medical Tower. Controversy and protests erupted from the hospital's doctors, who believed O'Quinn had made millions of dollars suing their colleagues. Despite the complaints, the deal was approved by the hospital's board of directors. The library at the University of Houston Law Center was also renamed to O'Quinn Law Library after his donations.

In October 2006, O'Quinn pledged $5 million to Texas Democrat Chris Bell for his gubernatorial campaign.

Car collector

Divorced with no children, O'Quinn's father had taken him to an exhibition of Duesenberg's as a child at the Sam Houston Coliseum, to see what his father called "the greatest car ever built." In 2003, O'Quinn saw a 1932 Duesenberg Durham Tourister for sale at a Houston auction, at which he bought 14 cars that day including the Duesenberg for $405,000.

O'Quinn now maintains an extensive collection of cars, with a total value of over $100 million to buy 618 cars, including: seven Duesenbergs; the 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost featured in the film Titanic; John F Kennedy's 1962 Lincoln Continental Bubble Top limo; a 1937 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante.

In September 2006, he bought: a 2005 Lamborghini Gallardo covered with 33 celebrity autographs ($500,000); the Batmobile used in the filming of Batman Forever ($335,000), a 1941 Packard limousine used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ($290,000), a 1938 Talbot-Lago ($3,350,000); and a 1938 Cadillac Town Car used by Pope Pius XII ($250,000).

The centre piece of the collection is plain grey 1975 Ford Escort GL, once owned by Polish priest Karol Wojtyla - before he became became Pope John Paul II. Bought at the Kruse auction at SEMA, the car was sold by the Pope at auction for charity to Chicago restuaranter Jim Rich in 1995, who paid $102,000 for the car. O'Quinn paid €690,000 for the car October 2005.

In late 2006, O'Quinn found cars missing from his collection, including a Ferrari 575M and a 1965 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350. O'Quinn tried to get in touch with Zev Isgur, a 32-year-old ex-con whom he'd befriended and entrusted with the management of his collection of classic cars. Isgur was later convicted of embezzlement.

References

See also

• Robertson Stadium

External links

• The O'Quinn Law Firm Homepage
• O'Quinn's accomplishments have not been without controversy, Houston Chronicle, 10 January 1998