Since joining Martzell, Bickford & Centola in 2001, Spencer R. Doody has dedicated his career to representing victims of environmental exposures and industrial catastrophes. He has litigated a wide variety of injury and death cases and has focused on the rights of mesothelioma victims in particular. Spencer has litigated mesothelioma cases on behalf of shipyard workers, welders, refinery workers, Navy veterans, salt miners, automobile mechanics, air conditioning repairmen, boilermakers, pipefitters, construction workers, insulators, crane operators, electricians, bus drivers, longshoremen and merchant marines, achieving verdicts and settlements in the tens of millions of dollars.
Since 2019, Spencer has actively pursued recovery against those responsible for the Opioid Crisis on behalf of thousands of children born opioid-dependent and having suffered from neonatal abstinence syndrome. In this capacity, Spencer has served (and is currently serving) as a member of the Purdue, Mallinckrodt and Endo Bankruptcy Ad Hoc Committees in New York and Delaware and is actively engaged in both the Opioid and McKinsey MDL proceedings pending in Cleveland and San Francisco, respectively.
Earlier in his career, Spencer managed the firm's “welding fume” litigation as his firm pursued recovery on behalf of hundreds of welders who sustained toxic exposures to manganese. Together with Scott Bickford, Spencer litigated the very first case selected from among thousands to go to trial in the Welding Fume MDL in Cleveland, and the very first welding fume cases to go to trial in Louisiana. Spencer also managed the firm's thimerosal docket, achieving then-unprecedented procedural victories on behalf of victims of mercury poisoning across the State.
Spencer has also litigated complex environmental contamination cases on behalf of large private and governmental landowners, including but not limited to their claims against BP arising from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Along with Scott Bickford, Spencer has served as counsel in numerous election disputes in courts across Louisiana and most recently successfully represented the Mayor of Shreveport before the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Spencer has successfully represented clients in numerous other fields including employment discrimination (Section 1983 civil rights, FMLA), admiralty (involving multiple deaths), medical malpractice, legal malpractice, land use, and premises liability.
Spencer is a strong believer in the importance of pro bono work. He recently served as local counsel for Lambda Legal in groundbreaking civil rights litigation and has also served on the boards of several local non-profits. Spencer was honored to give two continuing legal education courses to lawyers on both ethics and personal injury litigation in 2015.
He is a New Orleans native and a graduate of Tulane Law School.
Areas of Practice
- Mesothelioma/Asbestos
- Toxic Tort and Products Liability Litigation
- Litigation of Personal Injury
- Medical Malpractice
- Occupational Disease
Litigation Percentage
- 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Bar Admissions
- Louisiana, 2001
Education
- Tulane Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana J.D. – 2001
- Loyola University New Orleans B.A. – 1998
- Major: Accounting
- Major: Economics
Honors and Awards
- Lemle & Kelleher Foundation Scholarship, 1998 – 2001
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Trial Lawyers Association, 2003 – 2013
Past Employment Positions
- Martzell, Bickford & Centola, Paralegal/Legal Assistant, 1994 – 2001
Recent Blog Posts
Apex Roofing Hires Martzell, Bickford & Centola to Sue Its Former Lawyers for Legal Malpractice
Martzell, Bickford and Centola Files Nationwide Class Actions against Caesars and MGM Casinos for Short-Changing Customers
Scott Bickford Elected President of the Louisiana Association for Justice
Martzell, Bickford & Centola Client, Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins, Prevails at Supreme Court
Martzell, Bickford & Centola announces multi-million dollar settlement of mesothelioma case involving longshoreman.