Over the past ten years, Mary has worked at every level of the Louisiana state court system. She began her career with a three-year judicial clerkship at the Louisiana Supreme Court, reviewing and providing recommendations to the Court on hundreds of writ applications, drafting dozens of opinions, and absorbing invaluable knowledge about the inner workings of the Court. She spent the next year learning the “ins and outs” of the state’s intermediate error-correcting courts as a research attorney at the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal.

 

During the next sixteen months, Mary served as an Assistant District Attorney for the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court. She packed an incredible amount of work into this time, litigating at the trial level everything from traffic tickets to first degree rapes. She also acted as counsel of record on numerous criminal appeals and writs and advised the District Attorney on important civil litigation before the Louisiana Supreme Court.

 

Since starting her private practice, Mary has worked behind the scenes on hundreds of federal and state cases, drafting petitions, discovery, substantive trial memoranda, writ applications/oppositions at the Louisiana Courts of Appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court, and appellate briefs in both state and federal appellate courts. Mary’s work has been submitted before the United States Fifth Circuit, federal courts in several states, the Louisiana Supreme Court, all of the Louisiana Courts of Appeal, and countless Louisiana district courts. Mary has also been retained to appear as counsel of record in numerous significant state court and federal cases. 

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Mary is admitted to the Louisiana Bar and to the bars of all federal courts in the state of Louisiana.

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Below is a sample of recent published Louisiana Supreme Court opinions which resulted in favorable outcomes for Mary's clients:

State v. Schmidt, 21-0491 (La. 1/28/22), 333 So.3d 411.

1026 Conti Holding, LLC v. 1025 Bienville, LLC, 22-1288 (La. 3/17/23), 359 So.3d 930.

George v. Progressive Waste Solutions of La, Inc., 22-1068 (La. 12/9/22), 355 So.3d 583.

Berkley Assurance Company v. Willis, 21-1554 (La. 12/9/22), 355 So.3d 591.

Zapata v. Seal, 20-1148 (La. 9/30/21), 330 So.3d 175.

 

Mary also recently helped secure reversal of the district court's judgments in the following United States Fifth Circuit cases: 

Weinhoffer v. Davie Shoring, Incorporated, 23 F.4th 579 (5th Cir. 2022).

Efthemes v. Amguard Ins. Co., No. 21-30556, 2022 WL 3684611, at *1 (5th Cir. Aug. 25, 2022).

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Judicial Experience

Louisiana Supreme Court

• Law Clerk to Associate Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll, August 2013 through October 2016

• Law Clerk to Associate Justice Greg G. Guidry, February 2019 through June 2019

• Law Clerk to Justice Pro Tempore Susan Chehardy (Chief Judge, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal), July 2019 to December 2019

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Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal

• Research Attorney to Judge Fredericka Homberg Wicker, November 2016 through August 2017

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Litigation Experience

Assistant District Attorney, Twenty-Second Judicial District Court, September 2016 through January 2018

• Served as felony ADA, managing a caseload of roughly 170 defendants in addition to a monthly probation revocation docket.

• Oversaw misdemeanor/traffic dockets, with 8 trial days per month.

• First chaired 21 misdemeanor/traffic judge trials, several of which involved ongoing civil litigation.

• Second chaired 3 felony jury trials (obstruction of justice; aggravated incest; and aggravated rape), 1 felony judge trial (aggravated rape), and 5 misdemeanor/traffic judge trials.

• Drafted written memoranda for numerous motions hearings (e.g., suppression hearings, hearings, bond revocations, motions in limine).

• Counsel of record on 9 felony appeals.

• Assisted private counsel and civil division attorneys in preparing the Supreme Court writ application and briefs in Montgomery v. St. Tammany Parish Government.

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Education

• George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School, J.D., cum laude (2013)

• University of Dallas, M.A., English (2010)

• University of Dallas, B.A., English, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa (2009)

 

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Professional Activities

• Louisiana Association for Justice, Executive Committee

• Louisiana Association for Justice, Amicus Brief-Writing Committee

• Academy of New Orleans Trial Lawyers

• St. Thomas More-Loyola Law Inn of Court

• St. Thomas More Catholic Lawyers Association

• Solo and Small Firm Section, Louisiana State Bar Association

• Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society