Areas of practice

Personal Injury -- Plaintiff

Criminal Law

Products Liability Law

Admiralty & Maritime Law

Year Joined Firm: 1980

Member

100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

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About Me

Irving J. Warshauer 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 whom he received a Special Commendation. He served on the Federal Public Defender Panel for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1981 – 2002. Irving 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, products liability and major automobile collisions. 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 waste water that caused various health problems to residents in St. Bernard Parish. He also was appointed by a federal court judge as Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Trial Counsel and to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in a class action litigation involving a discharge of contaminants into the Pearl River which resulted in a massive fish kill.

Irving was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 11, 1950. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and he earned a B.A. degree, with honors, in 1972. In 1976, Irving received his Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law. He 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).

In 2016, Irving received 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, published by Woodward/White. In 2009, he was named “New Orleans Best Lawyers’ Personal Injury Litigator of the Year” and he was selected as “Best Lawyers’ 2016 New Orleans Plaintiffs Personal Injury Litigation Lawyer of the Year.” Since 2006, Irving has been listed in Louisiana Super Lawyers, as published by Law and Politics, and in the 2010 and 2011 publications he was listed as one of “The Top 50″ lawyers in Louisiana. From 2016 – 2018, he also was 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.

Irving is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, in which he served on the Louisiana State Committee from 2007-2012, the American Bar Foundation, and the Louisiana Bar Foundation, in which he served on the Greater Orleans Community Partnership Panel. He is a member of the American Bar Association and previously served as a Vice–Chair of the Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee, Tort and Insurance Practice Section. Irving is also a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, in which he has Proctor Status, 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. For over twenty-five years he was a member of the Tulane Law School American Inn of Court, in which he served as President from 2006 – 2008. Irving 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. Irving is a member of the New Orleans Bar Association, in which he served as Chair of the Products Liability Committee in 2014 and 2015. 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 Advisory Board of the South Central Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), of which he was Chair from June 2020 – May 2022, and he is a member of ADL’s National Commission. He recently began serving on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. 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.

Bar Admissions

  • Louisiana, 1976
  • U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, 1977
  • U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana, 1982
  • U.S. District Court Middle District of Louisiana, 1986
  • U.S. District Court Southern District of Mississippi, 1991
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit, 1978
  • Supreme Court of the United States of America

Education

  • Tulane Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana
    • J.D. – 1976
  • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
    • B.A. – 1972
    • Honors: With Honors
    • Honors: Phi Beta Kappa

Classes/Seminars

  • Instructor, Trial Advocacy Course, Tulane Law School, 1981 to 1981

Honors and Awards

  • Special Commendation, U.S. Department of Justice
  • Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
  • Fellow, American Bar Foundation
  • Fellow, Louisiana Bar Foundation
  • Best Lawyers in America®, 2002-Present
  • Best Lawyers in America®, New Orleans Best Lawyers’ Personal Injury Litigator of the Year, 2009
  • Best Lawyers in America®, Best Lawyers’ New Orleans Plaintiffs Personal Injury Litigator of the Year, 2016
  • Louisiana Super Lawyers®, 2007-Present
  • The Top 50 New Orleans Super Lawyers®, 2016-2017
  • The Top 50 Louisiana Super Lawyers®, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017

Professional Associations & Memberships

  • American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow
  • American Bar Foundation, Fellow
  • Louisiana Bar Foundation, Fellow
  • Tulane Law School, Member, Continuing Legal Education General Advisory Board, 1988
  • Eastern District of Louisiana, Member, Federal Public Defender Panel, 1981 to 2002
  • New Orleans Bar Association, Member
  • Louisiana State Bar Association, Member, House of Delegates, 1997 to present
  • Louisiana State Bar Association, Chairman, Committee on Youth Education, 1985 to 1986
  • Louisiana State Bar Association, Secretary/Treasurer, Section of Civil Law and Litigation, 1988 to 1993
  • American Bar Association, Member
  • American Bar Association, Vice-Chair, Committee on Admiralty and Maritime Law, Section of Tort and Insurance Practice, 1999
  • Federal Bar Association, Member
  • Louisiana Association for Justice, Lifetime Member, President’s Advisory Council, 1987 to 1989
  • American Association for Justice, Member
  • Maritime Law Association of the United States, Proctor Status
  • Tulane Law School American Inn of Court, Member
  • Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute, Member

Past Employment Positions

  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, Assistant U.S. Attorney, 1977 to 1978
  • U.S. Department of Justice, , Criminal Division, Trial Attorney, 1978 to 1980

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