Chip Wagar

Wagar Hickman, LLC

Chip Wagar Personal Injury Lawyer

Wagar Hickman, LLC

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Firm Summary

Chip applies his more than three decades of civil trial litigation experience to the most complex and difficult cases of medical malpractice and products liability nowadays. Based in the metro New Orleans area, Chip is licensed in Louisiana and Texas, he has a multi-state practice and has been admitted pro hac vice in many other states including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Chip brings together meticulous preparation with passionate courtroom advocacy on behalf of both his individual and corporate clients.

Chip’s preeminent professional achievements have been recognized by his peers and various legal and professional organizations including Super Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the International Association of Defense Counsel. He is a Life Member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and has received Martindale’s highest (AV) rating for lawyers for more than 30 years. In January 2015, he was lead counsel in a medical malpractice wrongful death case in New Orleans that resulted in a multi-million dollar jury award; the highest damage award to a single medical malpractice victim in Louisiana history.  Chip handles medical malpractice cases all over Louisiana, southern Mississippi and the panhandle of Florida.

Chip also represents local, national and international manufacturers in products liability litigation claims involving the defense of personal injury, property damage and business interruption claims.  Chip has been a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, an invitation-only organization of preeminent defense attorneys and regularly represents Fortune 500 clients in these cases.

Chip has taught trial advocacy to hundreds of lawyers over the years with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and to law students at Tulane and LSU law schools in Louisiana. He is presently an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University’s College of Law where he teaches Medical Malpractice law.  He is also an award-winning writer of historical fiction, having two published novels, An American in Vienna and The Carpathian Assignment, a newly-released non-fiction work, Double Emperor, The Life and Times of Francis of Austria.

Chip Wagar and his wife Cheryl have lived in Mandeville, Louisiana since the late 1980’s; a city near New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  Chip has two children, Will Wagar, and Sarah Hickman.  He enjoys writing in his free time as well as travel and exploration, especially in Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.  An avid history buff, he narrates the military history podcast “Killing Time” on iTunes, which explores the greatest battles and campaigns that changed the course of history.

Additional Info:

• Founding Partner and formerly Managing Partner, 1996-2018 Wagar Richard Kutcher Tygier & Luminais, LLP
• Partner, 1982-96
  • • Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale
• Attorney, Litigation, and E&P; 1979-82
  • • Exxon Corporation, Exxon USA
• Tulane University, School of Law; 1976-79
  • • Juris Doctor, Cum Laude
• George Washington University, 1972-76
  • • Bachelor of Arts, International Affairs
• Author
  • • An American in Vienna, iUniverse, 2011
    • The Carpathian Assignment; Createspace, 2014
    • Double Emperor, The Life and Times of Francis of Austria
• Peer Recognition:  Selected for induction into Louisiana SuperLawyers® 2011-2018, International Association of Defense Counsel, American Board of Trial Advocates, Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell “AV” attorney since 1986.
• Professional:  Louisiana State Bar Association, Texas Bar Association, Admitted pro hac vice in numerous other states and federal districts of the United States.  Admitted to the Supreme Court and all inferior State Courts of Louisiana in 1979 and Texas in 1982 by passing the bar examination in both states.  Admitted to the US Supreme Court, 1981, Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal, 1980; US Districts Eastern, Middle, and Western Louisiana, 1979; Eastern and Southern Districts, Texas, 2010; Northern District, Texas, 2015.  Various other admissions to federal districts in multiple states 1996-2015.
• Practice:  Concentrated and specializing in Medical Malpractice, Products Liability, Commercial and Admiralty litigation as well as other significant Casualty loss cases.  Lead counsel in several prominent cases in recent medical malpractice jurisprudence in Louisiana.  See Fanguy v. Lexington Insurance Company, Butler v. Bevrotte, et al, Dupree v. José (Joseph) Nelson Dorta, et al, and most recently, Terre Matranga, et al v. Parish Anesthesia of Jefferson, LLC, et al.  Cited as lead counsel in over 63 cases in Westlaw.  Lead counsel in over fifty jury trials and countless other bench trials, hearings, and proceedings.  Thirty-five years of litigation practice and experience.