Molly Wells is a partner in Fishman Haygood’s litigation section. She has experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants across all manner of commercial litigation.
Molly is known for her careful attention to detail in addressing complex problems before and after the initiation of legal proceedings. When legal proceedings cannot be avoided, Molly most frequently represents clients in litigation or arbitration on claims for breach of contract, unfair trade practices, common-law aiding and abetting, and violations of securities, antitrust, and mineral laws.
Most notably, she was counsel to investors defrauded in R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme in their lawsuit against the five banks that the investors allege aided and abetted or knowingly participated in the scheme. Settlements totaling $1.6 billion were reached with five bank defendants on the eve of trial.
Molly is also a member of the firm’s international arbitration team. Fishman Haygood handles a number of disputes arising under bilateral investment treaties (“BIT”s), which sovereign nations enter to protect investors of their country who make investments in their partner country under the treaty. In such matters, the firm represents claimant construction companies in confidential arbitrations against respondent sovereign nations who expropriated or otherwise impaired the claimant’s investment within respondent’s borders in violation of the applicable BIT. For example, she represents a Turkish company, Akgun Insaat Makina Sanayii ve Dis Ticaret Ltd. Sti (“Akgun”), in a case against the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in a construction dispute under the Turkey-Ethiopia BIT. Molly and the other members of the Akgun team tried the matter at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, in May 2022, and the case is currently pending before the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Molly received her law degree summa cum laude from Tulane University Law School. While in law school, Molly served as Managing Editor of the Tulane Law Review and as a student attorney with the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic. After law school, Molly clerked for the Honorable Carl J. Barbier of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Recent representations include:
- Representation of individuals and the Official Stanford Investor’s Committee against five banks, with particular concentration on claims against Trustmark National Bank and Independent Bank of Texas (formerly known as Bank of Houston), in a lawsuit alleging the banks’ aiding and abetting of the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford. Settlements totaling more than $1.6 billion were reached on the eve of trial.
- Representation of commercial contractors in confidential international arbitrations arising out of large-scale infrastructure and industrial development projects.
- Representation of a contractor providing online services for universities in arbitration against a university who breached the parties’ agreement.
- Representation of Louisiana landowners in a lawsuit against Motiva arising from multimillion-dollar lease dispute involving underground storage caverns mined in a salt dome.
Updated July 2023
