Areas of Practice

  • Products Liability
  • Construction Defect
  • Insurance Defense
  • General Casualty Litigation
  • Class Action Litigation and Procedure

Philip G. Watson

Shareholder

Areas of Practice

  • Products Liability
  • Construction Defect
  • Insurance Defense
  • General Casualty Litigation
  • Class Action Litigation and Procedure

Philip is originally from Houma, Louisiana, and comes from a family that has always been tied to the legal profession. His mother was a paralegal for a prominent plaintiff’s firm in Houma, and his cousin a judge on the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal. He graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University of New Orleans in 2003. He then worked for a legal services clinic as a volunteer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps from August 2003 to July 2004. These positive influences caused Philip to be interested in a legal profession. He received an academic scholarship and went on to earn his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 2007. While at Tulane, Philip was the managing editor for the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, a student attorney for the Juvenile Law Clinic, and a member of the Tulane Inn of Court. He graduated in the top 25% of his class.

Philip has valuable experience as first-chair trial counsel, and has worked on numerous trial teams in products liability, general liability and workers’ compensation matters as well as multiple products liability Multi-District Litigation bellwether trials. He has been fortunate enough to gain a wealth of experience in a relatively short period of time, which is a testament to Duplass. It has positioned Philip and other lawyers at the firm to handle any type of case, no matter how big or small, in a professional and expedient fashion. He has also been featured in City Business “Ones to Watch” section for the construction industry in June 2013.

Professional Affiliations

As a member of the Federal Bar Association and the Louisiana State Bar Association, Philip is admitted to Practice in the State of Louisiana, the United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, and the United States fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Publications

The Prematurity Defense to Contractual Indemnity Claims in Louisiana, Louisiana Bar Journal (Feb/March 2016)

Note, The Mass Action Provision of CAFA: Where Defendants Fear to Tread?, DRI’s “For The Defense” (April 2009)

Note, United States v. General Battery Corp.: The Third Circuit Applies Federal Common Law Rather Than State Law To Determine Successor Liability Under CERCLA, Despite Opposing Results in Other Circuits – But Are the Splitting Circuits Really Just Splitting Hairs?, 20 TUL. ENVTL. L.J. 219 (Winter 2006).

Recent Development, In re The Exxon Valdez, 20 TUL. ENVTL. L.J. 459 (Summer 2007)