My childhood has informed my approach to Family Law.
I started life born into a working class family in the late 1960's. I was adopted by my maternal grandparents before I knew any differently, and we all lived together off and on through the 70's and 80's in Hammond and in Amite. There was constant turmoil in our house. We moved seven times before I was eighteen, and twice more shortly after that.
In school I was always the littlest guy in my class, and I quickly learned what it was like to be bullied. I had run-ins with bullies quite a bit. For some reason, even as a little kid, when faced with a bully much bigger than me, I wouldn't back down. I still don't. (That attitude remains in me as a Hammond family law and criminal attorney). I learned to love books and reading, and wrote my first short story in the fourth grade. In the latter part of my childhood, writing fiction became my refuge, along with performing music (trumpet, piano, guitar, and voice) and spending time in church.
My college years have informed my approach to dealing with the powerful.
In college at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, I did the sensible thing and majored in business. I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Washington D.C. studying Economics at Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and working on Capitol Hill. It was in Washington where I learned one of my most valuable life lessons. Riding the elevator and the subway with the powerful people I saw on the evening news and on CSPAN every day, I realized they didn't have a halo over their head, and that they were not any better than me or anyone else-they just had power.
My work with other attorneys and with the Tangipahoa Parish, Livingston Parish and St. Helena Parish Courts have informed my approach to Criminal Law.
During law school, I was drawn to criminal and family law, and was fortunate to work for State District Judges Ray Chutz in Amite and M. Douglas Hughes in Livingston before I was sworn in as a new attorney. I was fortunate to learn the criminal practice from three great criminal attorneys, Frank Holthaus in Baton Rouge, Wayne Stewart in Livingston Parish, and Ron Macaluso in Hammond. Most recently I was fortunate enough to learn from Gerry Spence in Wyoming at the Trial Lawyer's College Death Penalty School. Each of these brilliant legal minds have helped make me the attorney I am today.
If It Matters To You, It Matters To Me
Over the last three decades, I've represented hundreds of criminal defendants with charges from DWI charges to homicide, families in divorce, child support, custody, and child protection cases, and people injured by the fault of others. What I've discovered is that many of the lessons I learned early in life still apply: Whether the bully is a current or former spouse, another lawyer, a prosecutor, or a judge, bullies only stop bullying when someone stands up to them. As your attorney, I will defend your family, your rights and your reputation aggressively.
Please call me at (985) 310-6900 or schedule a free telephone consultation