Bill Hines says New Orleans needs more regional cooperation | Business News

For the past 30 years, William H. “Bill” Hines, managing partner at Jones Walker, has been as much a fixture in regional business and civic circles as in the legal community.

The 69-year-old New Orleans native was founding board chair of Greater New Orleans Inc. and chaired the boards of the MetroVision Economic Development Partnership, The Idea Village, the Downtown Development District and the Louisiana Committee of 100 For Economic Development. 

And he helped lead the effort to secure an NBA franchise for New Orleans, bringing the Hornets, now the Pelicans, to the state.

During those years, Hines was also busy growing Jones Walker into one of the 145 largest law firms in the U.S.

When first elected managing partner in 2006, Jones Walker had 200 attorneys in six offices. Today, it has more than 350 in 17 offices across nine states and the District of Columbia. Clients include large corporations, banks and financial institutions, emerging enterprises, family-owned businesses, professional sports teams, and state and local governments. It also has a new equine law practice and is growing a national artificial intelligence practice.

Earlier this month, Hines was reelected managing partner for a fifth consecutive five-year term, which begins in January.

In this week’s Talking Business, Hines discusses the importance of regional cooperation and why he believes the business community has to do more to build bridges. 

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why is civic engagement so important to you? 

When I left for college in the mid-1970s, New Orleans was blowing and going. When I came back after law school in 1982, we had the collapse of the oil industry, which caused all sorts of problems for real estate, coupled with tax changes and other things that were all related and bad for New Orleans. It was a perfect storm. And it culminated in the 1990s, when we had the most violent year on record. People lament some of the recent challenges we’ve faced with the pandemic, the economy. They need to remember, it was really bad in the 1990s.

So you got involved. 

We sort of hit rock bottom and it motivated business, civic and political leaders to come together, people in their 30s and 40s at the time, Republicans and Democrats, men and women, Black and White. We got the Hornets to come here. We renegotiated the Saints deal. We put together a regional package to save Avondale (for several more years). We got the amusement tax off of our live musicians. We formed the Idea Village with Tim Williamson in 2002. We created GNO Inc. to address regional economic development in 2004. We did a lot of meaningful things that have continued to pay off today.

No question there was a flourishing in those years and also after Hurricane Katrina, when new investment came into the city. But today, it seems we have back slid.

We have plenty of service providers but fewer large companies and even fewer smaller companies. You see smaller companies still headquartered here but their private equity ownership will be out of state.

So what do we need to do to address some of these problems?

We need leadership and regional cooperation. I would like to see this area re-form the council of governments. It was a regional council with the mayor of New Orleans, Jefferson Parish president, at-large council members from each, plus the presidents of the five other parishes in the metro area. They all got together regularly to work on common problems. We need people to roll up their sleeves, think up projects and get them done. The silo thing doesn’t work.

Agreed. But, where is the business community? Where are the leaders that, when I was a young reporter, were a force to be reckoned with?

I think there is a younger generation that is engaged, but they need a group of elders that are connected and can help them pick projects to go after. A lot of it is about just showing people how to do deals.

It’s harder now, though. The biggest difference between the early 2000s and now is social media and 24-hour cable news. It has caused so much polarization. How often do you see Democratic and Republican officials working together? Occasionally at a ribbon cutting, but it happens a lot less than it used to. I hope after this mayor’s election, we can sit down and break some bread. 

What does New Orleans need in a new mayor?

We need someone who cares about business, who wants to build relationships with business. We are at the stage now that if someone could take care of streets, drainage, crime and garbage pickup, that would go a long way with the business community and that would help attract new business and retain existing ones.

Jones Walker created its own economic development consulting firm about two years ago. What was the thinking there?

It’s called Avident Advisors and it’s headed by Tommy Kurtz, a New Orleanian and economic development professional, who had been away for several years and wanted to come home. So I said, “Why don’t you do site selection and economic development work for us?” That’s how we started and it provides high end legal and economic development services for our clients. It is a small piece of what we do but it is kind of fun.

AI is a big topic in all sectors right now, and I know law firms are thinking a lot about it. What is Jones Walker doing around it?

We have fully embraced it. It’s like the internet was 30 years ago: Resisting it is going to go nowhere. So, we have created an AI team, led by four partners, and we’re developing a national AI practice that will focus on all aspects of this emerging field and how it impacts our clients. Though right now it’s four lawyers, in four years, it will be 10 or 12 or more. We also just launched the AI Navigator — a blog on our firm’s website that is constantly updated with information and resources about AI. Our view is you either get on the train on you’re off.

It’s not unusual for successful regional firms to be acquired by big national firms. Do you foresee Jones Walker selling?

I probably turn down more acquisitions than we’ve done. We have no interest in that. I’d much rather we run our own business and guide our own firm than be part of something that is much bigger.