Some thoughts from the local lawyer who kicked BP's ass

Meet one of my hometown folks. Well, it seems like a have a lot of hometown folks because, in addition to my hometown, I have a secondary and tertiary hometown. I plan on writing about my secondary one later this week. Or that’s the plan. Beaumont, Texas, is my tertiary hometown. Anyway, this hometown folk I introduce today (I don’t know him but wouldn’t mind) has the improbable name of Brent Coon.

Coon, who plays in a rock band and hangs around with knockout women, and (he also has a music company and a whole flock of bikini-clad “coonpups”) is a big dog in tort law right now. This is because in the court room he cleaned BP’s — yes, that BP — clock over the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005 that killed 15 and injured 170.

The head Coondog has a revealing, “as told to,” story about BP that can be found right here on Esquire‘s Web site. Yes, that Esquire. One of my favorite magazines in the whole wide world.

Now you can dismiss Coon totally or partially, if you want, because he is a plaintiff’s lawyer from one of the most plaintiff-friendly towns on Earth — that is if you believe the anti-plaintiff U.S. Chamber of Commerce (not the guys and gals who welcome you to town and has all the great maps and brochures but the chamber that owns one of the newspapers they publish nationally to try and scare potential plaintiffs’ juries.) But, to pardon the bad and poor tasting pun, where there is smoke there’s fire — and oil in BP’s case. That is what some friends and relatives, one with a Ph.D. in geology who works in deep drilling, tell me about BP’s reputation in the oil and gas industry. These people say, basically, “BP sucks” when it comes to safety.

So say what you want about Coondog, but this guy has got it going on when it comes to BP. And apparently to living la vida!