Houston Lawyer John O’Quinn Killed in Wreck

[WSJ_law_blog]

Some sad news out of Houston to report on Thursday. Prominent Houston attorney John O’Quinn was killed this morning when an SUV in which he was riding slammed into a large tree after the driver lost control. Click here for the story, from the Houston Chronicle.

An unidentifed adult was also killed in the wreck. According to the Chron, it wasn’t immediately clear whether O’Quinn or the other victim was driving.

Around 8 a.m., the driver of a black Suburban moving west on a parkway outside downtown Houston skidded across the median, oncoming lanes and another median before the vehicle slammed into a tree, which was uprooted, Houston police Lt. L.J. Satterwhite told the Chron. O’Quinn and the other victim were dead at the scene.

O’Quinn was widely known as one of the most prominent and successful trial lawyers in the country. He won a $1 billion verdict in 2006 against Wyeth for its diet drug, fen-phen; wrested a $17.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry on behalf of the state of Texas, and won $100 million on behalf of victims harmed by silicone breast implants made by Dow Corning.

He was known as an avid car collector.