Where are they now? Paul L. Katz

Hey Fortier ’63 Tarpons ! Did you know that classmate Paul L. Katz is a highly successful novelist ?  He is also the author of a non-fiction anthology about his favorite legal cases during a law career spanning 45 years.

In Paul’s debut novel, Disorder, you get to know the charismatic lawyers Claudius Sisken and Simon Vogel. You see how the prosecution works the smallest angles in trying to discover the evidence needed to solve the murder of a notorious businessman and US Senator. You Fortier classmates will love that Paul’s novel is set in the area in which we all grew up.

Classmates, if you like courtroom drama, you will love Paul’s autobiographical anthology of court cases he selected from a legal career that spanned over forty years. The Stalking Justice cases read like finely-crafted short stories. Paul was an assistant district attorney, a public defender, an insurance defense attorney, and a civil plaintiff.    

Paul’s books are available at Amazon.com

More about Paul

Paul Katz lives with his 165 pound dog Gumbo on the northwest side of Boulder Colorado near the mountains. He retired from the active practice of law in December of 2019 but maintains his license just in case. He began his career in the law doing criminal jury trials working for the District Attorney in New Orleans. His first eight years of practice were all criminal law working later for the New Orleans Public Defender’s office and then returning to prosecution in the district attorney’s office in Chalmette, Louisiana just south of New Orleans. During those years he tried over 200 criminal jury trials.
He then took on a job with an Insurance defense firm defending policy holders in court who had been sued because they had caused automobile accidents. Then he switched sides again and prosecuted civil actions against insurance companies on behalf of people who were injured in automobile accidents. On occasion he also represented people who were injured in maritime accidents or had business-related cases that were headed to trial. He has practiced in both State and Federal Court. All of his private cases were referred to him by other attorneys, ex-clients or friends. He never advertised. He regularly donates his time to serve as a “judge” in moot court competitions at both CU and DU Law School. He has been asked on a number of occasions to speak to the Louisiana Association for Justice and the Colorado Association for Justice on various topics including cross-examination of an expert, application of NLP to the practice of law, and the proper way to prosecute a business fire for the business owner.

He is a frequent traveler having visited over 120 countries, at least once, some as many as five times like Peru, Nepal, Thailand, and India. He has hiked the Inca trail, visited the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda, passed through the Straight of Magellan, taken the train from Agra to Calcutta, from Perth to Malborne Syracuse to Denver, and New Orleans to Chicago, he has hiked in the Himalayan mountains in Nepal, and also in Bhutan, taken the Siberian Express for seven weeks across Siberia to Moscow stopping along the way in Mongolia, visited the Jungle in Sri Lanka and the Amazon. He has visited the terracotta warriors in China, the Cu Chi tunnels in Viet Nam, and the hill tribe people in Thailand. He has been to the tip of Africa and South America and has enjoyed the northern lights in Iceland.

Besides for travel his interests include guitar, piano, chess and reading. He boasts that he hasn’t gained a pound since he was captain of the wrestling team at LSU. He is an avid skier and was ski instructor at the Keystone resort. He has three children and five grandchildren.

At LSU he was elected captain of the wrestling team and graduated with a BS in mathematics. Later, Paul became president of the student body his senior year in Loyola Law School.