When reporters need an expert opinion on a court case, they almost always call Dane Ciolino, professor of ethics and criminal law at Loyola University.
Ciolino also crops up from time to time as mouthpiece for some sleazebag public official. Whether his dual roles constitute a conflict is a ticklish question. I'd need to call an expert on that one.
Ciolino's current gig is as attorney for Tim Whitmer, who took time out from his $190,000-a-year job as Jefferson Parish CAO to flog insurance. He displayed a great aptitude for his sideline, particularly when hawking policies to government agencies, contractors and employees in his bailiwick
Ray Nagin once famously said that politics in New Orleans is "the dominant industry". I meditate on that thesis more and more each day. Here we see the dominant industry helping to prop up the insurance business, the legal profession, the TV punditry, and manage to sell me another newspaper in the process since I pretty much buy the T-P for Gill's column and Jeff Duncan's Saints coverage. It's quite a powerful multiplier effect. Maybe this is the crucial stimulus that keeps the economic "trend" effectively "bucked" to City Business's great delight. I wonder if we should hire an "expert" to look into this for us. What's Loren Scott doing this week?
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