LEGAL
KNIGHT
TRIAL LAWYER RUSS M. HERMAN BATTLES
PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES AND BIG TOBACCO
BY PAIGE BOWERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE LONG
On Jan. 7, 1973, 23-year-old former Black
Panther Mark Essex entered a Howard
Johnson hotel in downtown New Orleans,
where he threw firecrackers, set fires and
shot a .44-caliber Magnum rifle, killing
seven people in a 10-hour siege before
being slain by police sharpshooters.
Among the victims were three police
officers and a pair of young newlyweds
from Virginia.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the
newlywed couple’s family wanted to file
suit against Howard Johnson International
Inc., arguing that the hotel’s negligence
allowed the tragedy to happen. No law
firm in the city would take the case—it was
considered a sure loss—until an attorney
for the family reached Russ M. Herman,
an ambitious young lawyer who was
working for his father.
“I went in to see my father and said
I wanted the case because it was
outrageous,” Herman recalls. “My dad said,
‘Well, go for it. It’s going to be expensive
and if you lose, they’ll say nobody could
have won the case. But if you win, it will be
a career launcher for you.’”
Herman won, proving that there had
been murders, rapes and break-ins not
just at the New Orleans hotel, but at
hotels throughout the chain. The victory
launched a more-than-40-year career
that has made Herman one of America’s
leading trial lawyers. In 2010, the senior
partner at Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar
was inducted into the American Trial
Lawyer Hall of Fame.
“Russ is one of the most gifted advocates
in the country, and I’ve seen a lot of
good ones,” says James B. Irwin, a
pharmaceutical liability attorney with Irwin
Fritchie Urquhart & Moore in New Orleans.
“His speaking abilities have panache and
maybe even some swagger. I can’t imagine
anybody trying to mimic him.”
Herman, 69, is a Crescent City original
who never misses a Saints game, has
never missed a Jazz Fest and probably
never missed an opportunity to address
a guest as “dahlin’.” He is a silver-haired
teddy bear of a man, a proud father
of three who is just as apt to quote
Cicero as he is to list the virtues of his
hometown: the food, the people, the
history, the music—all of it.
He also has a firm sense of mission,
having caught the “law virus” from
his family. “My dad got a scholarship
to Loyola [University] and then one to
Tulane Law School,” Herman says. “My
uncle also went to law school. They had
nine children between them and eight of
us became lawyers. Four of us married
lawyers. Eventually, we got more Tulane
and Loyola law graduates combined than
really any other family in the city.”
Herman developed a healthy sense of
justice as a child. He remembers how
his father used to corral him and his
four siblings on Sunday mornings so he
could read them the Prince Valiant comic
