Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Resigns Amid BP Oil Spill Trial

A Texas lawyer has resigned from the team of plaintiffs’ attorneys who brokered a multibillion-dollar settlement with BP PLC and are facing the company at trial over the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier’s order Wednesday did not say why Mikal Watts, who was in court only for the trial’s first day, resigned from the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.

Neither Watts nor his attorney, Mike McCrum, responded immediately to calls from The Associated Press.

The San Antonio Express-News reported in February that Secret Service agents had searched Watts’ two law offices earlier that month.

Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie, reached at home in Washington on Wednesday night, said he couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation and did not know whether agents had gone to Watts’ offices.

A spokesman for the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee declined to comment.