BP's Pick for Oil Spill Uber Judge Has Unexpected Fans

(July 29) -- The federal judge BP wants to oversee hundreds of lawsuits filed against it in the wake of the gulf oil spill is a conservative, no-nonsense Texan who has lectured on ethics to petroleum geologists and has experience presiding over complex litigation.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes says he'd be happy to get the job. "Sure," he told AOL News in a rare interview. "It would be a challenge."

Hughes, 68, owns no financial interest in BP or any of its partners in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, although, like more than half of the federal judges in the Gulf Coast states, his financial portfolio includes income from oil and gas interests. But because BP suggested him by name in court papers as the judge for the job, Hughes has drawn unusual scrutiny (and at least one Facebook petition). While there have been no requests that he disqualify himself from the case, media accounts, including a segment aired by CNN, have included suggestions that his "industry connections" have "raised eyebrows."

The full portrait that emerges from reviewing Hughes' full background and talking to those who've appeared before him is more complicated. And it's taking on increasing relevancy. Following weeks of jockeying by both sides, a federal panel, officially known as the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, meets today to hear arguments about streamlining the 250 oil spill cases brought so far, likely before a single federal judge -- before Lynn Hughes, if BP gets its way.

BP has stressed that it is not judge shopping. In court papers, BP pointed to Hughes' experience, which includes handling multidistrict litigation cases, admiralty and maritime cases, and cases involving oil or gas spills, some of them offshore.

Hughes is already handling the first suit against BP filed in Houston: a class-action claim by Vietnamese-American fishermen.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, suspicious of BP's choice -- Houston is the de facto capital of the petroleum industry -- have submitted a roster of judges from the other four Gulf Coast states for the panel to consider, with most preferring a federal judge in New Orleans, where the majority of the suits have been filed.

"Louisiana is the center of gravity" for the oil spill, multiple attorneys for the fishermen and shrimpers have argued in court papers. The Justice Department has also pushed New Orleans. But the Crescent City presents its own problems. Six of the 12 active judges there recused themselves because of financial or personal ties to BP and its partners.

Last month, Hughes decided to confront questions about his objectivity head on. At a meeting with two dozen or so attorneys on both sides, he announced that he had posted his financial disclosure report online, an unusual step for a federal judge.

"I've been in public life for 30-odd years," Hughes explains now. "It's a little late to get secretive. If I thought I had a conflict, I would recuse."

Mark Lanier, a Houston attorney representing about 500 fishermen, shrimpers and property owners who are suing BP, said Hughes' meeting occurred around the time the judges in New Orleans began disqualifying themselves.

"Judge Hughes said he did not see any conflicts, and we lawyers have looked at it and don't see any conflicts either," Lanier said. "He's a good judge. He'd be fine on this."

"There's Oil on My Land ... (but) We're Not Partners"

Hughes' 2008 financial report, the most recent available, lists 87 investments, including real estate, bank accounts, IRAs, stocks and mutual funds, and royalties from oil and gas leases. At least half of the items listed included interest or dividend payments of $1,000 or less.

One mutual fund Hughes has had in his portfolio, the Legg Mason Aggressive Growth Fund, draws income from Anadarko Petroleum, a minority owner in BP's runaway well. He sold that position on Oct. 9, 2008. Hughes' largest oil and gas holding is stock in Chevron valued between $100,000 and $250,000. He also earns royalties from 11 mineral leases. All but two of them paid $1,000 or less each. The most lucrative paid between $5,000 and $15,000.

"I collect royalty payments from five or six different oil operators; there's oil on my land," Hughes told AOL News. "We're not partners. I have never met anybody with those companies. It's a mineral interest. The payments are incredibly small. I think the aggregate number is $13,000."

For the past two years, Hughes has lectured on ethics before the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Larry Nation, a spokesman for the association, said the 35,000-member group is akin to "a bar association for geologists."

As a "distinguished lecturer," Hughes spoke at conferences in Dallas, Houston and other Texas cities; Cape Town, South Africa; and Calgary. A week before the spill, he spoke to the group in New Orleans. Hughes receives no fee for his speeches but is reimbursed for his travel expenses, including airfare, food and lodging, Nation said.

"The implication has been that he was running around all over the place with a petroleum industry group," Nation said. "We are a professional society, not a lobby group or a trade group. We do not represent the industry."

Hughes describes the speech as a 25-minute talk he's given to more than 35 groups. "It's an anthropological mediation about the nature of trust and society and about how honest people make mistakes. It's not how to fill out a form so you don't get caught," he said.

No Fan of Long-Winded Lawyers. Or Disco.

Hughes was appointed to the federal bench in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan. Prior to that, he served six years as a state court judge. As a lawyer, he ran a general law practice for 13 years, six of them solo, before expanding to a four-lawyer firm.

Away from court, he's a self-described history buff. The decor in his chambers includes nods to seafaring and Lincoln, he said. His judicial web page plays the Civil War anthem, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"; he added the music, he said, "in a bit of whimsy." He also takes credit for ridding the Houston court's telephone system of the disco music that used to play while callers waited on hold.

"I didn't think it was right that you call the federal court and get stupid disco," he said. "Now when you're on hold, it's 'America the Beautiful.'"

In court, Hughes is known for being independent and fair -- and for rewriting court orders submitted to him by attorneys.

"He doesn't suffer fools lightly, and he doesn't have much patience with long-winded pleadings or long-winded lawyers," said Dick DeGuerin, a Houston criminal defense attorney who has tried cases before him. "He's a person about whom the phrase 'economy of words' was invented."

To that, Hughes pleads guilty as charged. "I believe in saying what you have to say and shutting up. Lawyers download these forms. They're like teenagers. They think if they get it on the Internet, it's OK. And they're just horribly written. I point out to them [that] it's my signature that goes on the order."

Ernest Cannon, a personal injury lawyer in Stephenville, outside Dallas, has known Hughes for three decades and once lived on the same street, although they are not personal friends. He said Hughes' reputation as a serious, studious jurist makes him a good choice to oversee the oil litigation.

"I'm like everybody else: Whatever BP is for, I'm knee-jerk against it," he said. "They're not known for making good choices. But in this case, this is the exception."