Irving J. Warshauer was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 11, 1950. He graduated from Isidore Newman School in 1968. Irving earned his B.A., with honors, in 1972 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Irving then attended Tulane University School of Law and received his Juris Doctor degree in 1976. From his college graduation, through law school, and until his Honorable Discharge in 1978, Irving served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve.
Irving has been certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He co–authored “The Uniqueness of Maritime Personal Injury and Death Law,” 79 Tulane Law Review Nos. 5 and 6 (2005).
Irving joined the Gainsburgh Benjamin law firm as an associate in 1980, and he became a partner of the firm in 1984. Prior to joining this firm, he was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana and a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, from where he received a Special Commendation. Irving served on the Federal Public Defender Panel for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1981–2002. He is licensed to practice before all Louisiana state and federal courts and before the United States Supreme Court.
Irving concentrates his practice in representing individuals and families in personal injury and wrongful death litigation, particularly in the areas of admiralty/maritime and products liability. He has successfully represented adults and children who had suffered catastrophic brain, spinal cord and burn injuries as the result of negligent conduct or a defective product. Irving was the lead trial attorney in a class action lawsuit involving a refinery’s discharge into the Mississippi River of untreated, contaminated wastewater that caused various health problems to residents in St. Bernard Parish.
Irving recently received the New Orleans Bar Association’s Presidents’ Award, which recognizes a lawyer who, in addition to their professional excellence and integrity, has dedicated themselves to community service in the exercise of the highest ideals of citizenship. In 2016, he was bestowed with the New Orleans Federal Bar Association’s Jack Martzell Professionalism Award.
For the past nineteen years, Irving has been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” (Woodward/White). This same publication named him “New Orleans Personal Injury Litigator of the Year” in 2009 and “New Orleans Plaintiffs Personal Injury Litigation Lawyer of the Year” in 2016. Since 2006, Irving has been listed in “Louisiana Super Lawyers,” published by Law and Politics, and in the past he has been recognized as one of “Louisiana Super Lawyers’ Top 50” lawyers in both New Orleans and Louisiana. Irving was named to New Orleans CityBusiness’ 2012 Leadership in Law class, which honors attorneys who have achieved success in their law practice and have made positive contributions to the greater community. In 2021, he was recognized by “Marquis Who’s Who” as a recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Irving was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2005, and he served on its Louisiana State Committee from 2007–2012. He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Louisiana Bar Foundation, in which he served on the Greater Orleans Community Partnership Panel. For over forty-five years, Irving has been a member of the New Orleans Bar Association and he served as Chair of its Products Liability Committee in 2014 and 2015. He was a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, in which he had Proctor Status. Irving is a member of the Federal Bar Association, in which he served in 2019 as Chair of the Admiralty Law Committee, the American Association for Justice, and the Louisiana Association for Justice. Irving was a member of the Tulane Law School American Inn of Court for over twenty-five years and he served as President from 2006–2008. He served in the Louisiana State Bar Association’s House of Delegates from 1997–2021, and he has long been a member of the LSBA Ethics Advisory Service Committee. From 2010–2019, he was a member of the Planning and Program Committees of the Tulane Admiralty Law Institute, and he continues to serve on the Institute’s National Advisory Board.
Irving’s civic activities have included serving on the Board of Directors of Make–A–Wish Foundation of Louisiana, of which he was President from 2005–2006, and on the Board of Directors and as President of the Audubon Area Zoning Association. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Louisiana Appleseed from 2011–2019 and served as its President in 2016 and 2017, and he now is an Emeritus Board Member of that organization. Irving also serves on the Board of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) South Central Region, of which he was Chair from June 2020–May 2022, and until recently he was a member of ADL’s National Commission. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights as Vice-Chair. Irving was a member of the Isidore Newman School Board of Governors from 1997–2014, and he was the Board Chair from 2007–2010.
Irving and his wife, Lynda, have two daughters, Jordan and Taylor.
