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LSU Law Center Announces 2015 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and Distinguished Achievement Honorees

A graphic with headshot photos of four men and two womenOn Sunday, October 11, the LSU Law Center will honor Edward J. Walters, Jr. as the 2015 LSU Law Center Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and Jeffrey K. Coreil, Jennifer A. Jones, Edwin G. Preis, Jr., Kimberly L. Robinson and Dean A. Sutherland for Distinguished Achievement at an awards luncheon at the Lod Cook Conference Center in Baton Rouge. The luncheon will begin at 1:00 p.m.

LSU Law Center’s Distinguished Alumnus Award is given annually to an alumnus/a for rare distinction in professional achievement and loyalty to the LSU Law Center. The Distinguished Achievement awards recognize graduates for professional achievement and career distinction, service to and support of LSU Law, and service to the community.

Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Edward J. Walters, Jr. is a 1975 graduate of the LSU Law Center. He received his B.S. in Accounting from LSU in 1969 and served in the United States Air Force from 1969–1973.

2015 LSU Law Center Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and Distinguished Achievement Awards Luncheon

Sunday, October 11, 2015
12:30 p.m.-Social
1:00 p.m.-Luncheon

Lod Cook Conference Center
3838 West Lakeshore Drive
LSU Campus, Baton Rouge

For ticket information: 225/578-5722 or jennifer.roche@law.lsu.edu

For over 40 years, Walters has served the Louisiana legal community. He is a partner with Walters, Papillion, Thomas, Cullens LLC in Baton Rouge where he maintains an active trial practice. Since 1988 Walters has been Board Certified in the field of Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, where he is the Louisiana Chair, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in Personal Injury Litigation.

Since 1988, Walters has served as an Adjunct Professor at the LSU Law Center, teaching a simulation course entitled Advanced Trial and Evidence. He has been a member of the faculty of the Law Center’s annual Trial Advocacy program since its inception 23 years ago, and a member of the Apprenticeship Week faculty which began in 2014.

A Fellow of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, Walters was recognized as the Foundation’s 2008 Distinguished Attorney. He served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association in 1993 and received its President’s Award in 1995 and 1998. Since 1985, he has been the Editor of Around the Bar, the official publication of the Baton Rouge Bar Association. He has served on many committees with the Louisiana State Bar Association including the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee, and he is currently the Chair of the Senior Lawyers Division of the LSBA. He received the LSBA President’s Award in 2011. In 2012-13, he served as LSBA Secretary and Editor of the Louisiana Bar Journal, the official publication of the LSBA, and currently serves on its editorial board.

Walters is a member of the LSU Law Center’s Alumni Board of Trustees and Chancellor’s Council. He is a past member of the LSU Law Center National Alumni Board. In 1990, he was selected for the LSU Law Center Hall of Fame. His law firm annually provides scholarship funds for LSU Law students in need.

He and his wife, Norma, have two sons and four grandchildren.

Jeffrey K. Coreil, a 2009 graduate of the LSU Law Center, served as president of the LSU Law student bar association and president of his class. He earned his B.S. in Business Administration from LSU. Coreil is a sixth-year associate at the NeunerPate law firm in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he devotes the majority of his practice to civil defense litigation, with a primary focus on admiralty and maritime, toxic torts and environmental litigation, and worker’s compensation defense.

Coreil serves on the board of directors of the Lafayette Bar Association, Lafayette Bar Foundation, and Lafayette Young Lawyers. He is chairman of the Lafayette Bar Foundation’s Lafayette Volunteer Lawyers program which administers pro bono legal services in the Acadiana area. He is also a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s 2013-2014 Leadership Class, the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel Young Lawyers Committee, and the board of the Acadiana Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association.

In some six years, Coreil has contributed more than 450 hours of legal work to the impoverished and victimized citizens of Lafayette Parish. As chairman of the Lafayette Volunteer Lawyer (LVL) program, he spearheaded the Counsel on Call Program, which offers 15-minute conferences with volunteer attorneys for basic legal advice. As a member of the LVL Protective Order Panel, Coreil also assists victims of domestic violence with their petitions for Title 46 protective orders, and he also accepts pro bono civil cases and coordinates the efforts of volunteer attorneys to assist homeless individuals through H.E.L.P. for the Homeless.

In 2012, Coreil spearheaded the creation of the CLE Committee of the Lafayette Young Lawyers Association to provide quality, low cost CLE opportunities in professionalism and ethics to the region’s young lawyers. In 2014, the Young Lawyer Division of the Louisiana State Bar Association recognized his efforts by awarding its Service to the Bar Award to the Lafayette Young Lawyers Association’s CLE program.

In 2014, Coreil was awarded the coveted American Inn of Court Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service, which recognizes an American Inn of Court member in practice for ten or fewer years for excellence in public interest or pro bono activities. Coreil also received the 2013 Louisiana State Bar Association Crystal Gavel, the 2012 LSBA Pro Bono Publico Award, the 2012 Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Award, the LSBA Pro Bono Century Award from 2011 to 2014, and multiple awards from the Lafayette Bar Association.

Since 2011, Coreil has returned to the Law Center to serve as guest speaker at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Professionalism Orientation, stressing the importance of professionalism and ethics to incoming law students. He is a member of the LSU Law Center’s Chancellor’s Council and has served as a firm leader for the Law Center’s Annual Fund campaign. A native of Ville Platte, Louisiana, Jeffrey is married to Hallie P. Coreil (’11), also a practicing attorney in the Lafayette area. They have a two year old son, Jack Riley “Rye” Coreil.

Jennifer A. Jones, District Attorney of Cameron Parish, is a 1981 graduate of the LSU Law Center where she graduated a member of The Order of the Coif and was a member of the Moot Court Board. Jones was elected as Cameron Parish District Attorney without opposition and took office in 2015. She is only the second woman in Louisiana elected to the position of District Attorney. Additionally, she is engaged in the private practice of law in the Jones Law Firm.

Following graduation, Jones spent a year as a clerk for the late Judge Earl E. Veron of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. She then returned to private practice with family members in Cameron. Jones served as an Assistant District Attorney for 22 years and spent 12 years as the First Assistant District Attorney in the parish. As an Assistant District Attorney, she handled criminal prosecution and also represented the Parish and various governmental agencies in civil litigation, most notably, South Cameron Hospital.

Jones is a frequent lecturer on a variety of topics at legal seminars around the state and is the recipient of many awards for legal achievement, including the Louisiana Trial Lawyers President’s Award in 1990, Super Lawyers, and Best Lawyers in Louisiana for some 10 years. She was named Citizen of the Year by the Cameron Parish Chamber of Commerce in 2005.   Since Hurricane Rita, she has received several awards for charitable work and community service, including the Jack V. Doland Citizenship Award presented by the Women’s Commission of Southwest Louisiana, the Louisiana Association for Justice Pro Bono Award, the Southwest Louisiana Bar Association President’s Award and Pro Bono Award. She is a member of the Council for a Better Louisiana, Louisiana Bar Foundation and the Louisiana Association for Justice, where she served on the Executive Committee for several years and as past Chair of the Women’s Caucus.

Jones is a Lector at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic church, where she also serves as Trustee.   She is a past recipient of the Benemerenti Medal and Community Service Awards from her church. She served as Grand Regent for the Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Daughters for over ten years. Jones is a member of the Cameron Lions Club, and served as president of that organization from 2008 until 2015.

Jones is the mother of two sons, Patrick K. Hebert (’01), Michael F. Bercier. She is also the grandmother of three children of her deceased son, Christopher A. Hebert: Olivia Marie, Thomas Christopher, and John Michael Hebert.

A 1972 graduate of the LSU Law Center, Edwin G. Preis, Jr. is the Managing Partner and founder of Preis PLC, a regional defense law firm with offices in Lafayette, New Orleans, and Houston. He earned his B.A. from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1969. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Preis served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Nauman S. Scott, U.S. District Judge, Western District of Louisiana, from 1972-1974.

With 42 years of legal experience, Preis maintains an active litigation practice focused primarily on maritime and energy disputes, including many high profile and complex cases. Preis is a member of the American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, Louisiana State Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, Lafayette Parish Bar Association, Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, Defense Research Institute, Maritime Law Association of the United States, and Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Louisiana Super Lawyers, and holds an AV Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating.

Since January 2010, Preis has been a member of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board pursuant to appointment by the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was Board Vice-Chair/Adjudicative Committee Chair for 2013, and Chairman of the Board for 2014. Prior to his appointment to the Board, he served for seven years as a Hearing Committee Chairman.

In 2014 and 2015, Preis co-taught, “The Ins and Outs of Mid-Size Firm Practice,” with Robert Kallam (’90) as part of the Law Center’s Apprenticeship Week. He served as a faculty member for the LSU Law Center’s Trial Advocacy Training Program in 1992 and 1993.

Preis currently serves on the Law Center’s Alumni Board of Trustees and is a member of the Chancellor’s Council. In 2012, Preis and the firm established the Preis PLC Director of Advocacy and Professional Practice Endowed Professorship which supports the director of the Law Center’s Advocacy and Professional Practice program.

Edwin and his wife, Christine, together have 5 children and 8 grandchildren.

Kimberly Lewis Robinson is a 1998 graduate of the LSU Law Center. She attended LSU where she received her B.A. in Political Science in 1993, and a M.A. in Public Administration in 1995.

A partner at Jones Walker LLP, she practices in the Tax & Estates Practice Group, focusing primarily on state and local tax matters, including tax and business planning, tax incentives, appeals, audits, and tax controversies.  Her practice also includes the areas of economic development financing and incentives and government relations.

Before joining Jones Walker, Robinson served as special counsel for the Office of the Governor of the State of Louisiana, where she provided legal counsel to Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and served as Senior Policy Advisor on Revenue, Economic Development and Insurance Policy.  Robinson also worked for six years in the Louisiana Department of Revenue, serving as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Legal Affairs and Confidential Assistant to the Secretary. From 1998–2000, she served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Justice Bernette J. Johnson (’69) of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

She is a frequent speaker on matters involving income, franchise, sales/use, severance, ad valorem property, and other tax issues.

Robinson was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2015 in the area of Tax Law, and the 2014 edition of Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Tax. She chairs the Section of Taxation for the Louisiana State Bar Association. As an active member of the community, Robinson serves on the Board of Directors for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and for the Foundation for Woman’s Hospital. She is a member of the LSU Law Alumni Board of Trustees, LSU John P. Laborde Energy Law Center, the Chancellor’s Council and is a past member of the Law Center’s Young Alumni Leadership Council.

Dean A. Sutherland received his Juris Doctorate from the LSU Law Center in 1975 where he graduated a member of The Order of the Coif. Born in Algiers, Louisiana, Sutherland received his B.A. in 1973 from the University of New Orleans. He served as a law clerk for Associate Justice Albert Tate, Jr. of the Supreme Court of Louisiana from 1975 to 1976.

During years of active trial and appellate civil practice, Sutherland developed a comprehensive knowledge of admiralty and maritime law, Louisiana and federal workers’ compensation law, as well as Louisiana tort and insurance law. His legal practice is focused on insurance coverage disputes, insurance bad faith claims, admiralty and maritime law, and construction and civil litigation.

Since 1983, Sutherland has maintained an “AV Preeminent” peer review rating in Martindale-Hubbell. He was nominated by his peers and selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers of America in the fields of admiralty law and insurance law, and in Louisiana Super Lawyers in the field of insurance coverage. Sutherland is a co-author of the upcoming edition of Cases and Materials on Maritime Law by Maraist, Galligan, Maraist & Sutherland, American Casebook Series (WEST Group – Third Edition, 2015). His article on Louisiana insurance “bad faith” law received the 2007 Stephen T. Victory Award for the best feature article in the Louisiana Bar Journal.

For some 15 years, Sutherland has served as an Adjunct Professor at the LSU Law Center, where he teaches Maritime Personal Injury Law, Advanced Tort Litigation Seminar, and Admiralty and Maritime Law. He was an Adjunct Faculty member of the Loyola University School of Law, teaching Maritime Personal Injury Law, Admiralty and Maritime Law, Employees’ Remedies from 1984-1990 and Insurance Law from 1998 – 2011. Sutherland has taught more than one-thousand attorneys and law students in trial advocacy and deposition legal education programs sponsored by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, American Bar Association Section of Litigation. He has received awards from NITA and LSU for his trial advocacy teaching.

In 1984, Sutherland co-founded the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel Trial Academy and has since been a member of the Faculty and Board of Directors. He served as the Program Director of the LADC Trial Academy for many years.

Sutherland coaches the LSU Law Center teams that compete in the national Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court competition. In 2010, he was awarded the inaugural Susan C. Kalinka “Coach of the Year Award” by the Law Center’s Moot Court and Trial Advocacy Boards. His admiralty moot court teams have won numerous brief and oral advocacy awards, cumulating in the 2015 National Championship.

In 2003, Sutherland joined Jeansonne & Remondet as Of Counsel to its New Orleans’ office. He is a member of the American and Louisiana Bar Associations, as well as the Maritime Law Association of the United States and the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel.

Sutherland has served on the LSU Law Center Alumni Board of Trustees and was elected into the LSU Law Center “Hall of Fame.” A member of the Law Center’s Chancellor’s Council since its inception, Dean served as the Chair Person of the Chancellor’s Council from 2007-2009. He has served as a Co-Founder, Master and Executive Committee Member of the Judge John C. Boutall American Inn of Court.

Dean is married to the former Rosalind Brewer, and they have three children. He and his wife were among the early planned gift donors to the Law Center.

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