Ms. Richelle N. Moore
Special Counsel
Dunlap Fiore, LLC
Richelle Moore is special counsel with the law firm of Dunlap Fiore, LLC. Ms. Moore has over 16 years of experience representing owners, contractors, and subcontractors in all aspects of contracting and construction law and litigation.

Prior to joining Dunlap Fiore, LLC, Ms. Moore spent 13 years at the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), including 9 years as CPRA’s Deputy General Counsel. Ms. Moore served as the agency’s lead legal advisor regarding the implementation and administration of CPRA’s construction projects, risk management (including executing only the second Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) implemented on behalf of a Louisiana state agency), alternative project delivery methods, and alternative project financing, including drafting and preparing legislation to enable innovative ways to fund and deliver projects. Ms. Moore served a critical lead role for the negotiation and drafting of the agency’s contracts, cooperative endeavors, and funding agreements, including those with local political subdivisions, levee districts, and other state, federal, and private partners. During her time at CPRA, Ms. Moore also managed all of CPRA’s public assistance matters under the Stafford Act involving FEMA.

Ms. Moore has extensive experience advising clients in all aspects of construction law, including project administration and execution, project financing, and compliance, payment, delay, and change claims; contracting, including drafting and negotiating a wide variety of public and private contracts and agreements; and nearly all aspects of public procurement, including best practices, drafting and reviewing solicitations, and handling bid disputes on behalf of both owners and contractors. Ms. Moore has also extensively advised clients regarding regulatory and environmental matters, municipal law, and governmental and legislative affairs.

Ms. Moore has been a repeat panelist and speaker at the National Ecological and Restoration Business Association’s National Policy Conferences and has presented at the American Bar Association’s Surety and Fidelity Law Midwinter Conference, the Louisiana State of the Coast Conference, Louisiana’s Coastal Law Seminar, and Louisiana Associated General Contractors’ Critical Issues Summit.

A native of northwestern Pennsylvania, Ms. Moore graduated cum laude from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and she earned her juris doctorate from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center.

Ms. Joy Murao
Founder
Practice Aligned Resources
While Joy Murao is best-known for her work supporting litigators and handling litigation matters around the world, her work with M&A and other transactional practice groups illustrates her creativity and leadership skills as a strategist, problem-solver and visionary. Her grasp of the power of technology, coupled with her dedication to client service, drives her to develop and implement innovative systems and strategies to revolutionize all practice areas. The solutions she devises result in more service and convenience for clients, while simultaneously achieving business efficiency. A decisive and passionate business leader,

Joy merges disparate technologies and personnel into team-centered business units. Her innate ability to foster interdepartmental collaboration and leverage joint ventures towards improved client opportunities and services helps her clients achieve their business goals.

Ms. Denise C. Puente
Partner
Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP
Denise C. Puente serves as the firm’s Managing Partner and is a commercial litigator practicing primarily in the areas of construction and surety law. She also represents contractors and property owners in the preparation and negotiation of construction contracts for condominiums, hotels, apartment buildings, parking garages, industrial facilities, mixed use facilities and other projects. Denise has litigated numerous public bid disputes cases, represented many contractors before the Louisiana Licensing Board of Contractors, and appeared before various other board and agencies throughout Louisiana on behalf of the firm’s clients. Denise also represents plaintiffs and defendants in commercial litigation involving redhibition, employment, copyright and trademark matters in state and federal court.

Denise is a frequent lecturer on construction and surety-related matters and has conducted numerous in-house training seminars for companies and public bodies on Title VII employment issues. In 1997, Denise received the Sam Dalton Capital Defense Award from the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Counsel. She is fluent in Spanish.

Mr. Jacob E. Roussel
Partner
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, LLP
Jacob Roussel is a partner in the Baton Rouge office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, L.L.P. Jake received his undergraduate degree in Construction Management from Louisiana State University and his law degree from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Jake’s principal areas of practice include Construction and Labor & Employment.

Mr. Roussel advises and represents clients, including owners, design professionals, general contractors, sureties, subcontractors, and suppliers, in all aspects of construction related matters. Mr. Roussel assists clients with risk avoidance through negotiation and preparation of contract documents as well as in the resolution of claims and disputes through litigation in state and federal courts and mediation and arbitration. Mr. Roussel has handled matters involving public and private construction projects, including industrial, highway, commercial, and residential projects. Specific experience handling construction industry disputes includes:

Public bid protests and disputes

Design errors and omissions

Construction defect claims

Compliance with building codes and regulations

Payment and lien claims, including under the Public and Private Work Acts and claims involving payment bonds

Unforeseen site conditions

Delay, acceleration, and inefficiency claims

Scope-of-work disputes

Cost overruns

Contract termination disputes

Mr. Brian S. Schaps
Partner
Deutsch Kerrigan, LLP
Brian Schaps provides legal guidance to contractors, engineers, architects, and surveyors and represents these clients in all manners and stages of construction litigation.
Brian provides attentive, diligent, and cost-effective representation to help his clients manage risks, evaluate potential liability and exposure, and achieve favorable resolutions to construction-related disputes.

Brian consults with clients regarding front-end issues related to contracts and risks, assists clients in managing and resolving disputes during construction projects, and aggressively litigates cases in state and federal courts.

Brian previously served as in-house counsel to a civil construction company and has first-hand experience with the critical issues and challenges faced by the various stakeholders in construction projects. During law school, he was a Student Attorney in the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic and a Managing Editor of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal. He is admitted to practice in all federal courts and state courts in Louisiana.

Brian likes to explore and enjoy all of the arts, music, and food that New Orleans has to offer, especially at all the local festivals- big and small. He also enjoys travelling and cheering for the New Orleans Saints.

Mr. Lloyd N. Shields
Partner
Irwin Fritchie Urquhart, Moore & Daniels, LLC
Sonny Shields has more than 43 years of experience in construction industry litigation and contracts; construction law; surety law (primarily construction contract bonds); insurance defense (including CGL, first party property, and architects’ and engineers’ errors, and omissions coverage); products liability; zoning and planning law practice, including administrative hearings; patent, trademark, and copyright litigation; and general litigation, including appeals.

For more than 30 years Sonny was an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School on the subject of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure and has taught for nearly 30 years at Tulane Law School on the subject of Historic Preservation Law. Sonny has delivered more than 200 papers and presents on numerous aspects of construction and surety law, and lectures on those subjects as well as on negotiation and mediation skills and practices.

Mr. Tyler G. Storms
Storms & Storms Law Office
Tyler Storms is an attorney based in Ruston, Louisiana with a primary practice in the area of construction (representing heavy general contractors, utility contractors, and subcontractors) primarily from the Ft. Worth, Texas area to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is our hope that we can assist you in all areas of the law in which we have experience: construction (contracts and disputes), contract negotiation and litigation, general business consulting and litigation, as well as serious injury cases (plaintiff and defense) in both Louisiana and Texas. We practice in real estate transactions and litigation, family law, estate planning and probate disputes, and banking only in Louisiana.

Mr. Barry G. Toups
Managing Attorney
Law Offices of the GL Trust
Barry Toups is the managing attorney for the Law Offices of the GL Trust, a captive law firm for the Louisiana Home Builders Association General Liability Trust. The firm represents general contractors in new home warranty claims, breach of contract claims and injury claims. Barry is a graduate of Tulane Law School, and served as an Assistant Attorney General, and supervisor, for over 30 years in the Litigation Division.

Ms. Mary Anne Anne Wolf
Partner
Keogh, Cox & Wilson, Ltd
Mary Anne Wolf, PE, FCIArb, has 35 years of combined experience in engineering and law, with an emphasis on resolving complex technical, construction and other commercial disputes. She is an arbitrator on the American Arbitration Association construction, commercial, and large case panels and a mediator and arbitrator at Perry Dampf Dispute Solutions. She is a fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a partner at the Keogh Cox law firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she handles litigation of construction and commercial claims.

Ms. Wolf is a licensed engineer and worked as a project engineer in the construction industry for 10 years before law school. She stays at the forefront of industry trends and best practices through her active affiliations in the Louisiana Engineering Society, ACEC of Louisiana, AIA-Louisiana, Louisiana Associated General Contractors, Women’s Energy Network- South Louisiana Chapter, and the construction law sections of the American, Louisiana State and Baton Rouge Bar Associations.

Mr. Russel W. Wray
Wray & Associates
http://www.wraylaw.com
In 1981, Russel W. Wray earned a B.A. with honors in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1984, a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University. Mr. Wray is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has practiced law in Louisiana since 1984. Wray & Associates is a continuation of the practice of law going back to 1965 started by W. P. Wray Jr. Wray & Associates has represented general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, design professionals, and owners, as well as trade associations such as LAGC and LAPA. Mr. Wray has appeared before the Louisiana legislature on construction industry issues and has worked with the Louisiana State Law Institute. He was Programming Chairman for the Dean Henry George McMahon American Inn of Court Chapter in 1993 and 1994. Mr. Wray has conducted Public Bid Law and Construction Law workshops and seminars for the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Louisiana, Louisiana Associated General Contractors, Inc., American Institute of Architects, LSU Law School, and others.

Mr. Wray has acted as a moderator for the panel discussion programs at both the LAGC Summer Conference and the Critical Issues Summit. Mr. Wray has often spoken on topics pertinent to the construction industry such as public bidding, uniform bid form, claims, illegal immigration, and current developments in the law. Mr. Wray has published numerous articles including in publications by the Louisiana Associated General Contractors, Inc and the Pelican Chapter, Associated Builders and Contractors on construction topics and was the Louisiana Case Note Editor for Construct! published by the Construction Litigation Committee of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association. Mr. Wray has also been a guest lecturer for the Construction Management Department at LSU, LSU Law School, LAGC, and other organizations or institutions.

Mr. Douglass F. Wynne Jr.
Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP
Douglass F. Wynne, Jr. is a partner at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP in New Orleans, Louisiana. His practice focuses on construction, fidelity and surety matters, and commercial litigation. He has represented contractors in all aspects of the construction phase including bid disputes involving governmental entities, disputes with the Louisiana Licensing Board of Contractors, negotiation of commercial terms in the bid phase, change order administration, delivery and close out issues, and warranty disputes. He has also represented sureties in payment bond and performance bond claims, including the negotiation and drafting of completion contracts and takeover agreements.