Professor Lisa Avalos
LSU Law Center
Professor Avalos joined the Law Center faculty in 2018. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of criminal law and procedure, with an emphasis on sexual offenses and gender-based violence. She also teaches in the area of legal ethics. Professor Avalos’s publications have appeared in the University of Illinois Law Review (forthcoming), Case Western Reserve Law Review (forthcoming), Brooklyn Law Review, Nevada Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, and others. Professor Avalos previously taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law and was a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to entering academia, she worked as an associate at McDermott Will & Emery in New York City and at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg in Chicago. She earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law. She also holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology Northwestern University, and a B.A. in psychology from Northwestern University. Prior to attending law school, she taught sociology at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
Judge Pamela J. Baker
Judge
East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court
http://www.familycourt.org
Hon. Pamela J. Baker is Judge of Division A of The Family Court in and for the Parish of East Baton Rouge. She is currently the Chief Judge of The Family Court. She took office on January 1, 2007. Judge Baker received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Louisiana State University in 1981, and her Juris Doctor degree from LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1984. Prior to her election to the bench, Judge Baker was in private practice for 21 years with the firm of Saltamachia & Baker, where her practice consisted primarily of family law cases. Judge Baker is the current President of the First Circuit Judges Association. She serves on the Judicial Council as an appointee of the Louisiana Counsel of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Association, of which she is a past president. She is a member of the Louisiana Law Institute Council. Judge Baker is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Judicial Education Curriculum Project, a project of the La. Supreme Court's Protective Order Registry. She is a member of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice Victim Services Advisory Board. Judge Baker also currently serves a Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Iris Domestic Violence Center. Judge Baker is a past chair of the Family Law Section of the Baton Rouge Bar Association and a past president of the Louisiana Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.
Professor Andrea B. Carroll
LSU Law Center
Andi Beauchamp Carroll is the Associate Dean for Student & Academic Affairs and the Donna W. Lee Professor of Family Law at the LSU Law Center. Before joining the LSU Law faculty, Professor Carroll clerked for The Honorable W. Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She subsequently worked as an associate at the Dallas law firm of Baker Botts, L.L.P., handling appellate litigation. In 2003, Professor Carroll returned home to LSU Law, where she has been teaching and writing about family law, community property, and property for nearly two decades. Professor Carroll is the author of more than a dozen books and articles in her field. She has recently been published in the Cambridge University Press and her Tulane article on civil law property was honored as outstanding scholarship at the Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. Professor Carroll is active in law reform in Louisiana, as a Member of the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute and the Institute’s Children’s Code, Adult Guardianship, Surrogacy, and Property Committees. She has led successful legislative reforms in the areas of child relocation, spousal support, surrogacy, and community property reimbursement rights. As Reporter of the Law Institute’s Marriage and Persons Committee, Professor Carroll continues to work to improve the law related to marriage and the family.
Mr. Kenneth P. Haines
Lawyer
Weems, Schimpf, Haines, Shemwell & Moore (APLC)
http://www.weems-law.com
Kenny Haines is a proud 1989 graduate of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at LSU. He has been practicing law with the same Shreveport firm, Weems, Schimpf, Haines, & Moore, for over 32 years handling all aspects of family, business and injury litigation in his career. He has worked as an Assistant District Attorney for the 2nd and 42nd JDCs, where he handled all post conviction matters and appeals for those DA offices. He worked on Child in Need of Care cases and handled juvenile and child support matters for the DeSoto District Attorney’s office. Kenny clerked for the late Pike Hall, Jr. at both the Second Circuit Court of Appeal and Louisiana Supreme Court. He has been lead counsel in well over one hundred appeals in his career. He has spoken on both family law
and appeal topics for the SBA, LSBA and LSU. He has served as Chairman of the Appellate Specialization Advisory Commission. He is the only lawyer in the State of Louisiana certified in both Family Law (2004) and Appellate Practice (2017).
Mr. Jeffrey M. Hoffman
Partner
Hoffman Nguyen & Kuehl, L.L.C.
http://www.hnkfamilylaw.com
Jeff is the co-founder of Hoffman Nguyen & Kuehl, LLC, also known as HNK Family Law, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been practicing law since 2004 with a specialty in family law after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as an undergraduate, and then the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, earning his Juris Doctorate and bachelor’s in civil law.
Jeff has been honored and/or recognized by numerous local and national publications including Super Lawyers (since 2013 as a Rising Star and 2018 as a Super Lawyer), the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys in 2014, New Orleans Magazine “Top Attorney” since 2015, New Orleans CityBusiness “Ones to Watch” in 2017, and Best Lawyers in America since 2017. He was also appointed to the Family Law Committee of the New Orleans Bar Association, where he participated in the Mentor Up Program and co-developed the Mental Health Professionals Meet and Greet program.
Outside of the family law arena, Jeff has also successfully represented clients in personal injury lawsuits, trademark infringement cases, employment discrimination, sexual harassment cases, Fair Labor Standards Act cases, and collection matters. He often helps entrepreneurs and current family law clients form businesses, draft contracts and operating agreements, and negotiate leases.
Mr. Jonathan T. Jarrett
Owner
The Jarrett Firm, LLC
http://www.thejarrettfirm.com
Jonathan T. Jarrett is an award-winning solo practitioner, focusing primarily in the areas of family law, criminal law, and personal injury. He has experience in all areas of family law, including issues of child custody, support, divorce, community property, and domestic violence protective orders. as well as areas of criminal law. Admitted to practice in 2012, Jonathan began working for an insurance defense firm, and chose to pursue a solo practice after about a year. He took his first volunteer protective order in 2013; a decision that he says changed his life for the better. After a successful hearing, a tearful embrace, and words of encouragement, he left his job and opened his solo practice, assisting survivors of domestic violence ever since. Jonathan is an experienced criminal law attorney. The principle of freedom which Americans highly prize is demonstrated in this nation’s commitment to the presumption of innocence in a criminal trial. In many other nations, the accused is presumed guilty until he proves his innocence or the government inadequately proves its case. Yet in the United States of America, the presumption of innocence requires the prosecution to prove its case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt before he would be pronounced guilty. Under the U.S. Constitution, everyone accused of a crime has the right to a lawyer’s defense. A 2007 graduate of the University of Mississippi, Jonathan received his Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, Minor in Linguistics. He pursued his J.D./D.C.L. at Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where he graduated in 2012. He is admitted to practice before all State and Federal Courts for the State of Louisiana, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Federal), and the United States Supreme Court. He is also a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Lafayette Bar Association. He currently holds a seat on the Lafayette Bar Foundation Board of Directors, is a Past President of the LBA Paula M. Woodruff Family Law Section, and a member of the LBA Young Lawyers Section.
Ms. Laurie Nelson Marien
Laurie N. Marien, LLC
Laurie Marien received her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (UL Lafayette) in 1998, and her Law Degree from Louisiana State University in 2006. She was a Law Clerk for Annette Lassalle of the Family Court after graduation and then worked as an Associate in the firm of Downs, Saffiotti, and Boudreaux, LLP. She has been a solo practitioner for the last seven years and is a Certified Family Law Specialist. Laurie and her husband Jason have been married for twenty-three years and have three sons, Wesley, Adam, and Patrick.
Dr. Kevin Murnane
Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Neuroscience, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Basic Science Research for Louisiana Addiction Research Center
LSU Health Shreveport
https://www.lsuhs.edu/departments/school-of-graduate-studies/pharmacology-toxicology-and-neuroscience
Dr. Kevin Murnane is an Associate Professor at LSU Health Shreveport. He received a BS in Biology and Psychology from the University of Georgia and a PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University. His research group is focused on the etiology and treatment of disorders of the central nervous system. Areas of special emphasis include substance abuse, alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The Murnane group directly or through collaboration uses techniques such as medicinal chemistry, drug formulation, molecular biology, electrophysiology, behavioral pharmacology, and neuroimaging. Recent studies in his laboratory have focused on the development of natural products that reduce neuroinflammation to develop disease modifying therapies disorders of the central nervous system.
Judge Brady D. O’Callaghan
1st JDC
https://www.judgeocallaghan.org/
Judge Brady Dennis O'Callaghan received his B.A. with honors in philosophy from Yale University in 1995 and his J.D. from LSU in 1999. After two years of general civil practice in Baton Rouge, he served as a prosecutor in the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, where he helped found the Special Homicide Offender’s Taskforce. In 2004, he returned to Shreveport to serve as an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, prosecuting hundreds of cases, including charges of domestic violence, sex crimes against children and adults, property crimes, crimes of violence, and numerous homicides. Judge O’Callaghan was elected in 2013 as a District Judge for the First Judicial District Court. Judge O’Callaghan presided over criminal cases for five years before taking over the family court bench over which he now presides. He is vice-president of the Louisiana District Judges Association and a member of the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which oversees judicial ethics complaints. Judge O’Callaghan has lectured on topics including ethics, criminal constitutional law, jury selection, and capital litigation. He has also served as an instructor at LSU Law School’s Trial Advocacy program. He has been happily married since 2003, and he and his wife Amy have two sons.
Mr. David M. Prados
Partner
Lowe, Stein, Hoffman, Allweiss & Hauver, L.L.P.
David M. Prados practices in family law and general civil litigation. He is a Board Certified Family Law Specialist who represents parties in every phase of matrimonial and domestic law, including prenuptial agreements, divorce actions, spousal and child support, child custody and visitation, division of marital property, as well as paternity, tutorship, interdiction, wills, successions, and appeals. He is also a Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice. Mr. Prados has served as a mediator and as a Special Master to assist litigants, their counsel, and the court to resolve difficult cases. Mr. Prados earned his
undergraduate and a masters degree in English from the University of New Orleans, and his law degree, cum laude, from Loyola University. During law school, he was a member of the Loyola Law Review and the Moot Court staff. He authors "Recent Developments in Family Law" for the Louisiana Bar Journal. He is a frequent lecturer on family law topics at continuing professional education seminars. He serves on the Louisiana State Law Institute Child Custody Committee. Mr. Prados is a Louisiana "Super Lawyer," and has been named to the "Best Lawyers in America" (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022), and was recognized by Best Lawyers as a "2020 Lawyer of the Year" in the practice area of Family Law.
Professor Sally Brown Richardson
A.D. Freeman Associate Professor of Civil Law
Tulane University Law School
PROFESSOR SALLY BROWN RICHARDSON is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and the A.D. Freeman Associate Professor of Civil Law at Tulane University. Her scholarship and teaching focus on how property and community property doctrines might be modernized to operate more effectively and efficiently given changes in society since their creation. In doing so, she compares how property and community property doctrines operate in both common and civil law jurisdictions, and she considers what the different legal systems might learn from each other to better address modern property issues. Richardson in 2019 received Tulane University’s highest teaching honor, the President’s Award for Excellence in Professional and Graduate Teaching. In 2015, she was awarded the Felix Frankfurter Award for Distinguished Teaching, Tulane Law School's highest teaching honor. And in 2015-16, she was the Gordon Gamm Faculty Scholar, an award supporting early-career professors. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, University of Houston Law Review, Tennessee Law Review, Tulane Law Review and the Louisiana Law Review. She is the author of the textbook Community Property in the United States (Carolina Academic Press 2015). Her article "Reframing Ameliorative Waste" was selected for the 2015 Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum. Richardson also blogs regularly for the PropertyProf Blog. Richardson serves on the executive board for both the Association of Law, Property and Society and the American Society of Comparative Law’s Younger Comparativist Committee. She is a member of Federal Bar Association New Orleans Chapter board of directors. She also is an active member of the Louisiana State Law Institute, serving on its council and a number of committees, including the Water Law Committee, Persons-Marriage Committee and Tax Sales Committee. She earned her BA in 2004 from Georgetown University and her JD, summa cum laude, in 2009 from LSU. Before joining the Tulane Law faculty in 2012, Richardson practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C. She clerked for Judge W. Eugene Davis on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and before that worked as deputy communications director for then-U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu.
Mr. Beau P Sagona
The Derbes Law Firm, LLC
Beau Sagona is a member of The Derbes Law Firm, LLC in Metairie, Louisiana, and is board-certified as an Estate Planning and Administration Specialist by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. A significant portion of his practice involves assisting his clients as well as other attorneys with the valuation and division of retirement benefits, including drafting Qualified Domestic Relations Orders and court orders dividing government retirement benefits, such as state, federal and military. He has testified in court as an expert on retirement plan issues and served as special master or court-appointed expert in cases involving retirement plan issues.
Beau obtained a B.S. in finance from L.S.U. in 1987 with a concentration in risk and insurance. He obtained his law degree from L.S.U. in 1990 and has been in private practice since then. He currently serves as a hearing committee chair for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. He previously served as chair of the Louisiana Supreme Court MCLE Committee and as president of the Jefferson Bar Association. He is also a volunteer with The Pro Bono Project.
Beau is married to the former Gretchen Ann Grieshaber, with whom he has two sons, Daniel and Thomas.
