Wayne A. Reaud, a trial lawyer and the founder of the law firm of Reaud, Morgan and Quinn in Beaumont, Texas, will receive the Honorary Order of the Coif from The University of Texas School of Law on April 15.
Honorary membership in the Order of the Coif (the oldest law legal honor society, dating to the time of Chaucer) is conferred by the Dean of the School of Law on an individual whose professional or scholarly achievements in the law are of such distinction as to warrant the prestige of membership in the Order.
For more than 30 years, Reaud has represented clients in cases involving personal injury, product and premises liability, toxic torts and business litigation. He is known in the legal community as a champion of working men and women. He received his law degree from Texas Tech University in 1974 and his undergraduate degree from Lamar University. Reaud is a former member of the Lamar University Board of Regents.
Reaud has handled the largest asbestos product liability class-action lawsuit in the history of Texas courts, and represented the State of Texas in its landmark litigation against the tobacco industry.
Reaud is chairman of the Board of the Beaumont Foundation of America and is a director of the Reaud Charitable Foundation. In those capacities he has directly or indirectly given nearly $5 million to the School of Law. In 2006, the Reaud Charitable Foundation began funding the Reaud Public Interest Scholars Program.
A life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a fellow of the International Society of Barristers, Reaud is also a former director of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Philosophical Society and a member of the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee. Reaud was chosen as the Most Distinguished Alumnus of Texas Tech University Law School in 1998 and also chosen as the Most Distinguished Alumnus of Lamar University in 2006. He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America.”
Other award winners include Judge Sam Sparks of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Ann Barnett Stern, who received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service; and Thomas M. Susman, who received the Outstanding Alumnus Award.
