Jim Swanson represents state and local governments, corporations, and individuals in a general commercial and securities practice. He has handled cases involving municipal finance, derivatives, CDOs, Ponzi schemes, corporate tax, coastal land loss, environmental damage, industrial and environmental accidents, and a range of other subject areas. Jim’s efforts are recorded in over 100 reported decisions.
Jim is particularly known for his securities practice and has obtained multimillion-dollar judgments for his clients in jury and bench trials and commercial arbitrations. Most recently, Jim was counsel to investors defrauded in R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme in their lawsuit against the five banks that the investors allege aided and abetted or knowingly participated in the scheme. Settlements totaling $1.6 billion were reached with five bank defendants on the eve of trial in early 2023.
In addition to his established securities practice, Jim is currently working on a series of cases involving coastal land loss and other forms of environmental damage for governmental entities, including the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and private landowners.
He also represents several commercial contractors in confidential international treaty arbitrations arising out of large-scale infrastructure and industrial development projects. Jim and his team have prosecuted bilateral investment treaty (BIT) claims at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands, and at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in London and Paris. For example, his team represents a Turkish company, Akgun Insaat Makina Sanayii ve Dis Ticaret Ltd. Sti (“Akgun”), in a case against the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in a construction dispute under the Turkey- Ethiopia BIT. Jim and the other members of the Akgun team tried the matter at the Peace Palace in The Hague in May 2022, and the case is currently pending before the PCA.
While the majority of Jim’s practice is plaintiff focused, he also represents defendants.
Best Lawyers® named Jim the 2011 “Lawyer of the Year” in Bet the Company Litigation (New Orleans) and clients praise him as being “intelligent, creative, and his legal applications are on point.” Chambers & Partners calls him “a terrific strategist” and “a strong, thoughtful, and tenacious trial lawyer.”
Jim is a member of the Xavier University of Louisiana Board of Trustees, serving on the Executive Committee and as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He is on the board of the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought. Jim is also a member of the Baylor College of Medicine’s President’s Circle. He is the former Chairman of the Choice Foundation, the governing board of three turnaround public charter schools in New Orleans that educate 1500 high poverty students. He is also a former member of the New Orleans Opera Association Board.
Jim is a fellow of the American and Louisiana Bar Foundations and a member of the International Society of Barristers. Jim has been a regular faculty member of the Practicing Law Institute’s (PLI) annual program Securities Litigation: From Investigation to Trial. He has taught at Loyola Law School and Tulane University.
Updated Sep 2023
