Jeanette Riggins is a seasoned trial attorney with extensive litigation experience. She serves as the partner-in-charge of MG+M’s New Orleans and Mississippi offices and is a member of the firm’s National Trial Team for multiple clients. Jeanette regularly appears in state and federal courts across the country and also serves on National Coordinating Counsel and Regional Coordinating Counsel teams, where she manages and supervises local counsel in the defense of corporate clients.
Jeanette has received Martindale-Hubbell’s prestigious AV Preeminent Rating and was recognized as one of the 2020 Best Lawyers in America. Her practice primarily focuses on products liability, general liability, toxic tort, construction litigation, insurance defense, and premises liability matters.
She has defended a wide range of clients, including product manufacturers, suppliers, contractors, employers, premises defendants, executive officers, and insurance companies. In products liability matters, Jeanette has represented manufacturers and suppliers of friction products, gaskets, packing, pumps, joint compound, asbestos-containing pipe, explosion-proof fittings, circuit breakers, arc chutes, and cosmetic talcum powder products. She has also defended environmental litigation claims involving benzene exposure and environmental contamination from dry cleaning operations.
Jeanette earned her Juris Doctor from Tulane University School of Law in 2000. While in law school, she was a member of the Tulane Moot Court Board and the winner of the 2000 Phelps Dunbar Senior Trial Competition. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to The Honorable J. Sterling Snowdy, Madeline Jasmine, and Mary Becnel of the 40th Judicial District Court for the State of Louisiana.
Jeanette is admitted to practice law in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as before the United States District Courts for all districts of Louisiana, the Southern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
In addition to being a member of the bar associations in all jurisdictions where she is admitted, Jeanette is a member of the Houston Bar Association, the Houston Lawyers Association, the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Association, and the Defense Research Institute. She also serves on the distinguished Trial Advocacy faculty at Louisiana State University.
Trial Experience
Over the past decade, Jeanette has served as trial counsel for contractors, suppliers, and manufacturers in asbestos litigation nationwide. Recently, she and her trial partner obtained a directed verdict for the defense in an asbestos trial in the Baltimore City Circuit Court by focusing on the plaintiff’s assumption of risk, a novel legal strategy in Maryland asbestos litigation.
Shortly thereafter, Jeanette successfully secured summary judgment on behalf of a mechanical contractor client in an Orleans Parish, Louisiana asbestos lung cancer case. The plaintiff alleged exposure to asbestos from products associated with pipefitters employed by the defendant contractor. Jeanette demonstrated that the contractor’s work involved only the installation of new piping and that the plaintiff could not identify any activity by the defendant that caused asbestos exposure. The court granted summary judgment, finding insufficient evidence to establish that the defendant’s conduct was a substantial factor in the plaintiff’s alleged injury.
Jeanette’s practice areas include asbestos litigation, construction litigation, environmental litigation, general liability, premises liability, products liability, and toxic tort liability.
Her bar admissions include Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Louisiana, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Jeanette earned her Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University in 1997 and her Juris Doctor from Tulane University School of Law in 2000.
