Pierce C. Azuma

Pat Vance is a partner in and leader of the Litigation Practice Group. He focuses on business litigation, debtors' and creditors’ rights litigation, and business bankruptcy. Pat has the distinction of being one of the few lawyers who is both a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is also a life member of the American Law Institute and a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference. As a trial attorney, Pat has handled mor...

Martin Landrieu's practice includes complex corporate litigation, class action defense, state and local tax litigation, telecommunications, zoning, real estate, property rights, and general commercial litigation. He has drafted and negotiated leases, purchase and sale agreements, cooperative endeavor agreements, contracts, rights of way acquisitions and fiber optic capacity use and service agreements for local and national business clients. He has extensive litigation experience in Louisiana'...

David Patrón serves as the Regional Practice Coordinator of the firm’s New Orleans Litigation Group where he manages one of the firm’s largest practice groups. With over twenty years of legal experience, David Patrón has established a solid reputation as a talented litigator who successfully represents businesses at all phases of litigation in state and federal courts throughout the Gulf South and beyond. Whether winning at trial or negotiating favorable settlements,...

Heather Lonian is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation. Heather, who practices law in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been recognized since 2021. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Heather is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Bart Bacigalupi focuses his practice on corporate business matters, including commercial finance, real estate, leasing, software contracts, start-up advice, services agreements, corporate governance and other commercial matters. He advises companies in general business matters across various industries, including energy, shipping, financial middle-market lenders, real estate investors, technology, hospitality and public utilities with respect to their legal business needs. Bart seeks to serve...

Fishman Haygood co-founding partner Louis Fishman is counsel to the firm and a member of our Business Section. His transactional practice includes corporation law, securities, and mergers and acquisitions. He also counsels clients on resolving disputes within family and other closely held businesses. Louis was a founder and has served since 1988 on the planning committee of Tulane’s Corporate Law Institute, and as a member of the Advisory Board of Editors for the Tulane Law Review since...

Tom Casey is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. He has a wide-ranging commercial litigation practice covering matters in both court and arbitration. Tom maintains a broad business and commercial litigation practice, handling disputes in court and arbitration. He has represented a variety of clients in the manufacturing, insurance, financial, and healthcare industries. Tom has also handled well over 50 class action cases in multiple states on issues such as products liability, contrac...

McGready Richeson joined the firm in 2017 and is a Member of the Firm; he is primarily engaged in environmental litigation, toxic torts, products liability, and business litigation. A skilled litigator, McGready has tried numerous cases throughout the States of Louisiana and Texas for nearly 25 years, and he is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western District of Louisiana, and all c...

Lele Hainkel is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. She focuses on energy litigation. Lele has extensive experience handling offshore and onshore energy-related disputes in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration. Her oil and gas litigation practice covers defense of claims against the oil and gas industry asserting liability for coastal erosion, legacy suit property restoration claims, disputes related to Outer Continental Shelf decommissioning liability, preferential rig...

Judy Barrasso is a founding member of Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, and includes complex commercial litigation matters and class actions involving complex commercial contracts, director and officer liability, securities fraud, and insurance coverage and bad faith claims. Judy has been ranked by Chambers USA as a top commercial litigator, by Benchmark Litigation as a Litigation Star, and by the Diversity Journal as among 20...