Jimmy Faircloth

Jimmy Ray Faircloth, Jr. (born July 1964),^[1] is an attorney from Alexandria and Pineville, Louisiana, who is a former executive counsel to departing Republican Governor Bobby Jindal.

Background

In 1987, Faircloth graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. He obtained his law degree in 1990 from Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.^[2] He is the founder and managing partner of the firm Faircloth, Melton & Keiser, LLC, in Alexandria. He holds a master's degree in litigation, which he earned in 1991 from Emory University, also in Atlanta.^[2] His practice involves governmental relations, commercial litigation, and labor mediation. He is certified in civil trial advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, rated "AV" or pre-eminent by Martindale-Hubbell,^[3] and qualifies as a "Super Lawyer".^[4]

In law school, Faircloth received the American Jurisprudence Awards for academic achievement in constitutional law, workers' compensation, and trial practice. He is the author of “Prosecutorial Misconduct in Closing Argument," published by the State Bar of Georgia in the summer of 1990.^[2]

Faircloth is married to the former Kelly Boisvert (born October 1965),^[5] a chiropractor who also studied at Louisiana Tech.^[6] The Faircloth's son, Zachary "Zack" Faircloth (born December 1993), is a 2012 graduate of Pineville High School and the 2016 student body president at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Like his father, he intends to become a lawyer. He was elected student bod president on a platform of "Forward".^[7]

Faircloth's father, Jimmy, Sr., is a registered voter in Grant Parish.^[8]

Career

In 1998, Faircloth was retained by Republican Mayor-elect Leo Deslatte of Pineville and three incoming members of the Pineville City Council, Joe Bishop, Carol Jeukens Cunningham, and Clarence R. Fields, to obtain in the Louisiana 9th Judicial District Court in Alexandria a temporary restraining order against lame duck Mayor Fred Baden and three defeated council members, regarding efforts to unionize Pineville municipal employees. Just prior to his defeat by Deslatte in a bitter general election campaign, Baden met with a representative of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and committed to a collective bargaining agreement between the union and city employees which he wanted formulated before he left office. Never before had Baden encouraged union activity. This time he did so during business hours at City Hall. The court ordered that Baden and three defeated city council members, Charles O'Banion, George E. Hearn, and Lemon Coleman, Jr. (1935-2015), the first African American to have served on the city council, must halt their efforts for unionization.^[9]

Faircloth is considered the legal architect of the Louisiana State Legislature' s special 2008 session on ethics reform. He guided the Jindal administration through the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.^[3] After nearly two years as Jindal's executive counsel, Faircloth resigned to run for the District 4 seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was narrowly defeated by fellow Republican Marcus R. Clark, a state court judge from West Monroe. Clark and Faircloth evenly split the twenty parishes in the district. Clark prevailed with 28,521 votes (53 percent) to Faircloth's 25,495 (47 percent). Clark's strongest turnout was in his home base of Ouachita Parish, where he defeated Faircloth, 14,253 to 5,322. While Faircloth won his home base of Rapides Parish, his turnout there was insufficient to overcome Clark's districtwide lead. Rapides Parish voted for Faircloth, 8,461 to 2,193.^[10][11] From 2005 to 2007, Faircloth advised the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana in the investment of $30 million in MainNet, an Israeli technology company which later went bankrupt.^[12]

On June 3, 2009, the Louisiana House of Representatives approved, 64-33, a bill by Representative Jim Morris, a Republican from Caddo Parish, to permit motorcyclists to decide for themselves whether they will wear helmets. Thereafter, the measure was shelved for the second consecutive year by the Health Committee of the Louisiana State Senate. Opponents of the measure said that safety considerations trump the freedom of choice. The bill had a provision that cyclists have health insurance and liability insurance before they could have been exempt from wearing helmets. In the debate on the bill, Faircloth likened motorcycle riding to skydiving, hunting, mountain climbing, and other sports with a risk in participation. State senators unimpressed with the legislation equated the helmet requirement to the state’s strict seat belt law designed to protect people from avoidable injuries.^[13]

After leaving the Jindal administration, Faircloth earned $1.1 million on no-bid contracts.^[14] Jindal subsequently named Faircloth to the Louisiana Tax Commission, but he resigned after three months because of a question over whether he could serve because he had left the Jindal administration less than a year earlier.^[12]

The Louisiana Board of Ethics later fined Faircloth $1,000 for not having waited for at least one year as required by state law but suspended payment with the understanding that Faircloth remain in accord with the law. As of July 2015, legal fees paid to the Faircloth law firm for its work on more than twenty-five cases for the state surpassed $1.5 million. Further fees were paid to the Faircloth firm since that time.^[15]

In 2012, Jindal named Faircloth to represent the administration in legal challenges to the state's educational laws.^[16] Faircloth hence defended the statewide educational voucher program and the rewriting of teacher tenure and pay policies.^[14]

Faircloth described Jindal, accordingly:

moral, hard-working, brilliant, tough as nails. ... He is really a bright, good, decent family man. There's not an ounce of scandal with Bobby Jindal.

I think his policies were really good. ... He has laid the foundation for some important changes in Louisiana. ...

We are living under the legacy of Huey Long in this state. That's a very long reach, and it served the state well in a lot of respects, and it served a lot of folks well, but at some point Louisiana has to break from that model in order to keep up with the rest of the country. And Bobby Jindal, I think in history, will be viewed as someone who came in and was determined enough to do that. It's hard to do."^[15]

References