"I am at my best when focused on achieving a favorable result for our clients in an efficient manner. At the end of the day, client success – whether through dismissal, settlement, or victory at trial – is my objective."
Energy industry litigator, trial counselor and advocate, Victor Gregoire, brings decades of proven skill to aggressively defend high-stakes, complex single and multi-plaintiff litigation. He has tried and won claims valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Fortune 500 and other energy and petrochemical businesses.
Victor resolves state and federal court environmental, commercial, toxic tort, and product liability litigation claims. He is valued for designing litigation strategies and case management protocols that streamline and conserve client legal spend. Practical, forward-looking, and responsive, Victor’s common-sense approach to problem solving has resulted in major clients consistently selecting him as their Louisiana counsel over many decades of practice.
Notably, Victor also advocates client rights across the ancillary state regulatory proceedings that parallel many of these litigation claims. From start to finish, Victor has proven his ability to interact with regulatory agencies and succeed in all related proceedings, particularly before the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
Moreover, Victor has successfully defended product liability and unfair trade practice claims of pharmaceutical companies, including allegations of personal injury, defective product design, defective manufacturing, and failure to warn on a variety of products. From enterprise liability and prescription to personal jurisdiction, Victor is skilled in optimizing his client’s position and managing e-discovery, expert witness development, and client witness preparation.
Victor knows the Louisiana environmental litigation landscape well. He is fluent in the laws and regulations that impact his client’s bottom line and maintains strong relationships with applicable regulatory agencies to ensure client disputes are resolved in an efficient and productive manner. His longevity of practice in defense of energy companies has resulted in knowing the strategy of opposing counsel who file these lawsuits, thus creating an advantage for those he serves.
- Represented a global energy client adverse to a significant landowner in coastal Vermilion Parish where the plaintiffs sought $110+ million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, for alleged negligence, unreasonable and excessive use of mineral lease rights, strict liability, and willful and wanton conduct in connection with handling and storage of wastes; following a three-week trial, the jury adopted our client’s environmental remediation plan and found that our client did not engage in negligent or willful conduct or exceed its rights under the applicable mineral and surface leases.
- Successfully represented energy clients in several regulatory proceedings before the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources, Office of Conservation involving claims for contamination of environmental media from oilfield operations.
- Defense of legacy oil field site contamination and NORM lawsuits for a major oil and gas company involving alleged soil and sediment contamination, alleged shallow groundwater contamination, and alleged drinking water aquifer impacts.
- Successful defense of major oil and gas company in two-week bench trial involving claims for contamination of soil and sediment from neighboring oil terminal.
- Successful defense of a major oil and gas company in a three-week jury trial involving a legacy oilfield site contamination lawsuit for claims of alleged soil and groundwater contamination and for damages allegedly caused by the construction of canals.
- Successful defense of a major oil and gas company in eviction proceedings brought by landowners for alleged NORM and other contamination allegedly caused by the client’s industrial activities conducted on a surface lease.
- Represented a large oil company in a series of class actions involving two separate incidents involving large-scale fires at separate petrochemical units.
- Represented a large fertilizer company in a class action lawsuit resulting from a catastrophic chemical explosion.
- Represented an oil company in a class action involving allegations of long-term exposure allegedly arising out of operations conducted at a gas processing plant.
- Represented a wood creosote company in a class action involving allegations of long-term exposure arising out of creosote operations.
- Represented a large manufacturer in a class action involving an alleged product defect in barges.
- Tulane University Law School, J.D., 1993
- Boston University, B.S., Finance, cum laude, 1990
- Louisiana
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
- Member, Baton Rouge Bar Association
- Member, Louisiana State Bar Association
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Member, Defense Research Institute
- Member, Louisiana Mineral Law Institute
- Member, Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel
- Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International
- 2000 Graduate, Leadership Class, Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce
- "Forty Under 40," Baton Rouge Business Report, 1999
- "Gale Force Winds: A National Push for Wind Energy in the Gulf Coast," The Energy Dispatch, Institute for Energy Law, August 2024
- Member, Past President, Board of Directors, Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel
- Member, Board of Trustees, Rotary Club of Baton Rouge Foundation
- Member, Rotary Club of Baton Rouge
- Member, Past Board of Directors, Capital Area United Way
- Member, Past Board of Trustees, Louisiana Arts and Science Museum
- Member, Past Secretary, Board of Directors, Baton Rouge Green
- Member, Past President, Board of Directors, Big Buddy Program of Baton Rouge
- Member, Past Board of Directors, The Hospice Foundation of Greater Baton Rouge
- Henning Management, L.L.C., v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. 22-30761 (5th Cir. 6/6/24)
- Hero Lands Company, L.L.C. v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 359. So.3d 130 (La. App. 4th Cir. 3/7/23)
- Andrepont v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 335 So.3d 916 (La. App 3 Cir. 2/23/22)
- Louisiana Wetlands, LLC v. Energen Resources Corporation, 330 So.3d 674 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/4/21)
- Emerald Land Corp. v. Trimont Energy (BL) LLC, 2021 WL 3416895 (W.D. La. 8/4/21)
- State v. Louisiana Land Exploration Co., 347 So.3d 684 (La. 6/30/21)
- Lexington Land Development, L.L.C. v. Chevron Pipeline Company, 327 So.3d 8 (La. App 1 Cir. 5/25/21)
- Global Marketing Solutions, L.L.C. v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 286 So.3d 1054 (La. App 1 Cir. 9/27/19)
- Alford v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 2015 WL 151333 (E.D. La. 1/12/15)
- Dietz v. Superior Oil Co., 129 So.3d 836 (La. App. 3 Cir. 12/11/13)
- Andrepont v. Chevron USA, Inc., 113 So.3d 421, 2012-1100 (La. App. 3 Cir. 4/3/13)
- Kling Realty Co., Inc. V. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. 575 F.3d 510 (5th Cir. 2009)