Lisa Avalos
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.
Andrea Carroll
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.
Elizabeth Carter
Professor Elizabeth R. Carter
LSU Law Center
Professor Elizabeth R. Carter is the A.N. Yiannopoulos Professor of Law and the Judge Anthony J. Graphia & Jo Ann Graphia Professor of Law at the Louisiana State University Law Center, where she teaches and writes in the areas of trusts & estates, tax, family law, and comparative law. In addition to her teaching responsibilities at the Law Center, Professor Carter teaches the courses in Federal Gift and Estate Tax and in Estate Planning in the University of Alabama’s LL.M. program in taxation. She is also an Academic Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
John Church
Professor John M. Church
LSU Law Center
Professor John M. Church is the Joe W. Sanders Alumni Association Professorship and Allen L. Smith, Jr. Professorship Associate Professor of Law at LSU Law Center. He also serves as Director of the Apprenticeship Program at the Law Center. Professor Church teaches Torts, Products Liability, Toxic Torts, Wine Law, Intellectual Property, and Antitrust Law. He has a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a law degree from the University of Colorado, where he was a Harlo Fellow, the Case Note Editor of the University of Colorado Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. Prior to joining the Law Center faculty in 1991, Professor Church clerked for Judge Robert H. McWilliams of the U.S. Tenth Circuit, and practiced law in Denver. He serves as the Law Center’s representative to the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association and is active in local and state bar activities. He is one of the founding board members of the Louisiana Civil Justice Center, an organization dedicated to the provision of legal services to those in need. In 2019, he received the Distinguished Professor Award from the Louisiana Bar Foundation. He is the co-author of Tort Law: The American and Louisiana Perspectives and Louisiana Tort Law. He focuses most of his writing in the area of food and wine regulation, tort law and toxic torts.
William Corbett
Professor William R. Corbett
LSU Law Center
Professor William R. Corbett is the Frank L. Maraist Professor of Law and the Wex S. Malone Professor of Law at LSU Law Center, where he teaches and writes primarily in the area of Labor and Employment Law, but he also teaches Torts. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Professor Corbett served as Interim Dean at LSU Law Center during fiscal year 2015-2016, and served as Vice Chancellor from May 1997 to January 2000. He was honored by the Louisiana Bar Foundation as the 2013 Distinguished Professor. He received his B.A. from Auburn University and his law degree from the University of Alabama, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He also received the M. Leigh Harrison Award presented to those graduating in the top 5 percent. He joined the law faculty at LSU in 1991, after practicing in Birmingham, Alabama with Burr & Forman. Professor Corbett has served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel for the last 22 years. Prior to that, he served for several years as Executive Director, and then as faculty advisor, of the Louisiana Judicial College.
Keith Hall
Professor Keith B. Hall
LSU Law Center
Professor Keith B. Hall is the Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law, and the Director of the Mineral Law Institute at LSU Law Center. He teaches Mineral Rights, Advanced Mineral Law, International Petroleum Transactions, and an Energy Law Seminar which focuses on environmental issues relating to the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the Law Center’s faculty in 2012, he taught Introduction to Mineral Law as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University School of Law from 2008 until spring 2012, and practiced law for 16 years at Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann LLC in New Orleans. His publications have focused on oil and gas leases, pooling and unitization, hydraulic fracturing, induced seismicity, and the management of produced water. He is co-author of one of the two national casebooks on oil and gas law and also is co-author of a book on the legal issues relating to hydraulic fracturing. He is a frequent speaker at national and international oil and gas, energy, and environmental law conferences, and is a contributing co-author to the forthcoming new edition of the leading textbook on international petroleum transactions. In addition to teaching at LSU, he has taught energy law classes as a visiting professor at Baku State University in Azerbaijan and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and as an adjunct professor at Loyola University College of Law. Professor Hall is a member of the Board of Editors for the Oil & Gas Reporter, the Board of Trustees for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Advisory Council for the Institute for Energy Law, and the Board of Trustees for the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation. He is a former Chair of the Louisiana State Bar Association's Environmental Law Section and former Chair of the Oil & Gas Committee of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He serves on the Louisiana Law Institute’s Water Law Committee and is a registered professional engineer. He co-authors “Recent Developments: Mineral Law” for the bimonthly Louisiana Bar Journal. Professor Hall received his law degree, summa cum laude, from Loyola University College of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Loyola Law Review. He graduated from Louisiana State University with an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.
Allison Jones
Ms. Allison A. Jones
Downer, Jones, Marino & Wilhite
Allison Jones is a prominent civil rights and employment law attorney at Downer, Jones, Marino & Wilhite in Shreveport, Louisiana. Throughout her distinguished career, Jones has settled, mediated, and litigated hundreds of employment law and civil rights cases, several of which garnered national attention. In particular, she is known for her expertise in the field of gender discrimination and gender equality. Among her notable successes, Jones represented the plaintiff in a gender discrimination action jury trial that resulted in the largest jury verdict awarded in the State of Louisiana for gender discrimination ($3,279,000), which was affirmed on appeal. She represented a parent plaintiff group in a Title IX gender equity lawsuit against Caddo Parish School Board that resulted in the allocation of several million dollars to bring the public school system into compliance. Ms. Jones also represented female members seeking access to public restaurant facilities at Southern Trace Country Club in Shreveport, resulting in the Louisiana Supreme Court’s first ruling that gender-segregated dining facilities in public accommodations are unconstitutional. She has also tried many jury trials in both state and federal courts dealing with commercial business transactions and oil and gas lease issues. Since 2015, Jones has served as an instructor for the LSU Law Trial Advocacy Program, and she is a frequent speaker at seminars and has numerous publications in local and state bar journals. She has presented at the Judicial Conference, hosted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for the years of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, and has served as the Program Chair for the Appellate Advocacy Seminar sponsored by the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit. In addition to these bar association seminars, she is a frequent speaker at the Louisiana State Bar Association and for Sterling Education Services and local organizations. Since 2015, Ms. Jones has served as an instructor for the L.S.U. Law School Trial Advocacy Program. Ms. Jones has been invited to join the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and she is a currently a Senior Fellow with the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation only trial lawyer honorary society representing less than one half of one percent of American lawyers. Fellows are selected and invited into the Fellowship after being evaluated for effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation.
Melissa Lonegrass
Professor Melissa T Lonegrass
LSU Law Center
Professor Melissa Lonegrass is the Harriett S. Daggett-Frances Leggio Landry Professor of Law, Bernard Keith Vetter Professor of Civil Law Studies, and Wedon T. Smith Professor in Civil Law. Professor Lonegrass earned her J.D. from Tulane Law School, where she graduated first in her class. Before joining the LSU Law faculty in 2008, Professor Lonegrass worked as an associate at the New Orleans firm of Irwin Fritchie Urquhart & Moore LLC, specializing in civil defense, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical and medical device defense. Professor Lonegrass has taught numerous civil law courses at the Law Center, including Western Legal Traditions, Obligations, Sales and Real Estate, Security Devices, and Successions, Donations & Trusts. Her scholarship focuses on Louisiana civil law, comparative legal methodology, landlord-tenant law, and contract law. She recently co-authored a textbook on Louisiana’s law of sale and lease, and has published articles in the Tulane Law Review, the Louisiana Law Review, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review, and the Loyola Chicago Law Journal. From 2016-2018, Professor Lonegrass was appointed as a Scholar-in-Residence of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, and in 2019, she was elected as an Academic Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Counsel. Professor Lonegrass is active in law reform in Louisiana, serving as a member of the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute, as the reporter of the Institute’s Landlord-Tenant Committee and the Notaries Committee, and as a member of many other committees, including the Committee on Successions and Donations.
Michael Lowe
Mr. Michael D. Lowe
Kean Miller, LLP
https://www.keanmiller.com/michael-d-lowe.html
Michael Lowe is a partner in the Shreveport office of Kean Miller and practices in the litigation group. Michael represents clients in the areas of labor and employment law, construction litigation and commercial litigation. His employment practice involves all aspects of labor and employment litigation. Michael represents clients in state and federal courts, as well as before various federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights (LCHR). He assists clients in the development of policies and procedures, the drafting and enforcement of employment contracts, including non-competition, confidentiality, and non-solicitation agreements, and the hiring, counseling, discipline and termination of employees. He prepares, litigates and defends non-compete agreements and other restrictive covenants for his clients. Michael assists business owners in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access cases, otherwise known as "drive-by" or "Google" lawsuits. He also devotes a substantial amount of his practice to assisting municipalities and government agencies with disputes involving Louisiana’s civil service laws and regulations. His construction practice involves all aspects of litigation and trial practice. He has also represented clients in the engineer/architect claims process, as well as the alternative dispute resolution process, including arbitration and mediation. Michael has assisted both contractors and owners in the drafting and review of construction contracts, including original documents and industry forms. He also has experience handling the various issues that often arise under Louisiana’s lien laws, including both the Louisiana Public and Private Works Acts. Finally, Michael has represented clients in administrative protests under the public procurement and public bid laws. Michael is a regular contributor to seminars and publications regarding both labor and employment law and construction law.
Jason Nichols
Mr. Jason B Nichols
Rice & Kendig, LLC
JASON NICHOLS was a shareholder at Cook, Yancey, King & Galloway practicing in the areas of business litigation, products liability, and insurance defense, but since 2021 has been practicing at Rice & Kendig.
He received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Centenary College in Shreveport and his law degree from LSU, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board.
He served as law clerk to the Honorable Donald E. Walter, United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana from 2003 through 2004. He serves or served on the board of the Shreveport Bar Association, Shreveport Bar Foundation, Broadmoor Baptist Church, The Hub: Urban Ministries, and the North Louisiana Federal Bar Association. Please welcome Jason Nichols.
Greg Smith
Professor Greg Smith
LSU Law Center
Professor Emeritus Greg Smith retired as the Professional Ethics Professor of Law, and the G. Frank & Winston Purvis Professor of Law at the LSU Law Center. He taught common law property, civil law property, payment systems, and legal profession. He did his undergraduate work at Yale, where he majored in Political Science and graduated with honors. Professor Smith earned his law degree from Brigham Young University, where he was an article editor for the BYU Law Review and was designated as a J. Reuben Clark Scholar. Following law school, Professor Smith served as a law clerk to Judge Monroe G. McKay of the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He practiced law for eleven years in Phoenix, Arizona before joining the LSU law faculty in 1991. His published writings have dealt with legal ethics, judicial conduct, and property law.
J. Randall Trahan
Professor J. Randall Trahan
LSU Law Center
Professor J. Randall Trahan is the Louis B. Porterie Professor of Law and the Saul Litvinoff Distinguished Professor of Law at LSU Law Center. Professor Trahan is a civil law specialist and presently teaches Sales & Real Estate, Security Devices, Civil Law Property, and Successions & Donations. He has also taught Family Law, Obligations, Matrimonial Regimes, Legal Traditions & Systems, and Western Legal Traditions, and is co-author, along with Professor Ken Murchison, of Western Legal Traditions & Systems: Louisiana Impact. He has written a new book entitled: Louisiana Law of Property: A Précis, published by LexisNexis. Professor Trahan received his B.A. in Political Science from LSU in 1982, and his law degree in 1989, with high honors, from LSU Law Center where he was Articles Editor of Louisiana Law Review and was inducted into The Order of the Coif. Before joining the Law Center faculty in 1995, Professor Trahan served as law clerk to the late Judge Alvin B. Rubin in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for one year and then practiced law with the firm of Phelps Dunbar in Baton Rouge for five years. He serves as Reporter for three committees of the Louisiana State Law Institute: the Adult Guardianship Committee, the Birth Certificate Committee, and the newly established Legion Beyond Moiety Committee.