Suits against BP list chief of universities

The expected gusher of lawsuits following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won't keep former company director and current University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll Davis from managing the state's 35 public colleges.

Davis, who spent a career in the energy industry before Gov. Sonny Perdue picked him to be chancellor in 2006, retired from the BP board days before the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion that triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Davis already has been served with papers from the first trickle of lawsuits, and observers predict more will follow, though Davis promised that he won't allow the court cases to distract him from his work as chancellor.

Atlanta attorney Bill Ide, of McKenna Long and Aldridge, said it's a common pressure tactic to sue directors in hopes they'll be more eager to settle. Judges, however, recognize the gambit and typically dismiss the directors from the lawsuit.

"The case law is very strong that directors, if they don't have a conflict of interest and they exercise business judgment rules, then they get swept out of lawsuits," said Ide, who has been sued as a director of the two boards he sits on.

Directors don't operate oil rigs or personally make most of the decisions that lead to the average lawsuit, he said, even members of the safety and environmental assurance committees.

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