Molly L. Wells

Practice Focus

Appellate Group, Class Actions/Mass Actions/MDLs, International Arbitration, Ponzi/Banking Schemes, Real Estate Litigation

Molly Wells is a partner in our 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. The firm 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 is a member of ArbitralWomen, an international non-governmental organization that brings together female international dispute resolution practitioners, as well as the International Bar Association, the foremost organization for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. She also is a member of the Association for Women Attorneys.

She was named to the Benchmark Litigation “40 & Under List – South” in 2022 and 2023. Molly is also a Super Lawyers Rising Star in general litigation and business litigation. She was named to the 2021 Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch® in commercial litigation, appellate practice, and antitrust law.

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.

Education

J.D., summa cum laude, from Tulane University Law School, 2014
- Managing Editor of the Tulane Law Review
- Order of the Coif
B.A. in French, cum laude, from University of Richmond, 2005

Clerkship

Clerk to the Honorable Carl J. Barbier of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 2014-2015

Publications / Presentations

Moderator, “Who, What, and Where: Enforcement Involving Latin American Arbitration Awards,” International Chamber of Commerce Young Arbitration and ADR Forum panel event (Nov. 13, 2024)
Panelist, “Pathways to Becoming a Class Action Practitioner,” University of Miami School of Law 8th Annual Class Action & Complex Litigation Forum (Jan. 25, 2024)
Speaker, “Surviving Depositions and Cross-Examinations,” Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants 2022 Forensic, Litigation & Valuation Services Conference (Oct. 2022)
“Balancing Policy Goals in the Cable Industry After the Expiration of the Exclusive Contract Prohibition,” 88 Tul. L. Rev. 127 (2013)

Representative Matters

Molly currently represents or recently represented:

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 of $100 million were reached with both Trustmark and Bank of Houston in early 2023, with total recoveries from all five bank defendants (The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) S.A., HSBC Bank plc, Trustmark, and Bank of Houston) amounting to more than $1.6 billion;
The putative class of customers defrauded by FTX and who suffered losses totaling more than $8 billion from the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in the multidistrict litigation In re FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse
Commercial contractors in confidential international arbitrations arising out of large-scale infrastructure and industrial development projects;
A contractor providing online services for universities in arbitration against a university who breached the parties’ agreement;
Louisiana landowners in a lawsuit against Motiva arising from multi-million dollar lease dispute involving underground storage caverns mined in a salt dome;
New Orleans shopping center in lawsuits to enforce commercial leases; and
Equipment rental company against class allegations of breach of contract and unfair trade practices.