Jeff Landry says he will be a friend to the plaintiff bar.

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This time, however, lawyers are pouring money into electing Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican who has been Democratic Gov. Edwards’ biggest foe.

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But behind the scenes, trial lawyers say that Landry has been cultivating them, telling them they would have nothing to fear from him as governor and that he would be their best choice among the five Republican candidates.

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Glenn Armentor, a prominent Lafayette trial attorney, has long feared that Landry would side with business interests over trial lawyers, and told him so when the two men met for three hours at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse recently.

“He gave me his word that he would be a friend to trial lawyers, and they would be a friend to him,” said Armentor, a major Edwards supporter who has donated to Wilson, but not yet to Landry.

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Armentor said Landry argued that trial lawyers would get a better shake from him than from Stephen Waguespack, another Republican gubernatorial candidate who lobbied legislators to make it harder for trial lawyers to file lawsuits during the decade he spent as president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.

Landry, Armentor added, “has been meeting with trial lawyer groups on a regular basis, saying, ‘I need you guys. You’re effective at campaigning. But you really need me because LABI is a big enemy of trial lawyers.’ We believe that. We need Jeff, and he needs us. It’s a mutual thing.”

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But just in case Landry breaks his word, several trial lawyers said privately, they are working to elect a state Senate friendly to their view. To ensure that, they are raising money for several Republicans locked in heated battles against other Republicans supported by business interests.

The flashpoint that pits trial lawyers against business interests is called “tort reform.” Tort reformers say it’s so easy under current law for people to file lawsuits and claim big damage awards that companies invest less in the state to limit their legal exposure. That leads to less job creation, they say.

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Perhaps no trial attorney is closer to Landry than Digger Earles, part of the Lafayette-based law firm Laborde & Earles. Earles, who supported Edwards in 2019, became friends with the attorney general when they attended Southern University Law School together in the 2001-02 academic year.

“I have a long history with Jeff the person, not Jeff the politician,” Earles said. “Jeff’s always done exactly what he said he would do. He’s an honorable guy, and I believe in his message.”

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