Press Release

NEW ORLEANS—Jones Walker is pleased to announce that Pauline F. Hardin, Business & Commercial Litigation partner, and Michael D. Waters, Banking & Financial Services partner, have been elected to the firm's Board of Directors for a four-year term, commencing January 1, 2013. Jones Walker's Managing Partner, William H. Hines, thanked outgoing Board of Directors member Elizabeth "Lisa" J. Futrell for her service.

Ms. Hardin and Mr. Waters join Jones Walker's 10-member Board of Directors, which is now composed of the following partners: 

• J. Kelly Duncan, New Orleans
• Pauline F. Hardin, New Orleans 
• William H. Hines, New Orleans, Managing Partner
• R. Christian Johnsen, Washington, D.C.
• Robert S. Lazarus, Jackson
• F. Rivers Lelong, Jr., New Orleans
• James C. Percy, Baton Rouge
• Rudolph R. Ramelli, New Orleans
• Gary J. Russo, Lafayette
• Michael D. Waters, Birmingham
  

Jones Walker also announced that 14 attorneys have been elected to partnership, effective January 1, 2013:

• Kyle M. Bacon, Business & Commercial Transactions, Lafayette
  Mr. Bacon's practice encompasses mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate, secured financing, private equity investments, commercial transactions, and corporate counseling. His clients operate in a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, banking, real estate, health care, and manufacturing.
  
  
• Christopher M. Capitelli, Business & Commercial Transactions, New Orleans
  Mr. Capitelli's corporate and transactional practice includes Hart-Scott-Rodino filings, oil and gas lease matters, and mergers and acquisitions.
  
  
• R. Keith Colvin, Real Estate, New Orleans
  Mr. Colvin has more than 30 years of experience in commercial real estate law and has represented developers, lenders, and owners in a wide variety of projects including gaming facilities, industrial plants, hotels, office buildings, golf course developments, and residential condominium development. Mr. Colvin was recently elected President of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys.
  
  
• Jennifer D. Hamer, Real Estate, Houston
  Ms. Hamer is a transactional attorney with a broad business practice in energy, real estate, and finance transactions, focusing on the development, operation, and finance of energy infrastructure projects, both domestically and internationally.
  
  
• Shawn H. Kiefer, Business & Commercial Transactions, New Orleans
  Mr. Kiefer's practice involves a variety of international and domestic commercial transactions, contracts, and related matters in, including, without limitation, secured finance, mergers, acquisitions, redemptions, and divestitures of privately held companies and their assets; financing involving state and federal tax credits; film finance, film production, and related transactions and agreements; import/export and international transaction regulatory compliance; international law and trade remedies; special projects; and a variety of other contractual relationships.
  
  
• Michael K. Leachman, Business & Commercial Litigation, Baton Rouge
  Mr. Leachman's practice covers all Intellectual Property matters. He is a Registered Patent attorney and assists clients in achieving their business objectives from the conception of a new invention to its commercialization. His trademark practice emphasis is on helping clients acquire, protect, and enforce both domestic and foreign trademark. Mr. Leachman's copyright practice involves all aspects of copyright protection, licensing, and enforcement.
  
  
• Christopher D. Martin, Business & Commercial Litigation, Baton Rouge
  Mr. Martin's practice focuses on general litigation, with particular experience in defending toxic tort and environmental contamination suits, including class actions, in both state and federal court, on behalf of clients in the petro-chemical industry. He also specializes in matters involving franchise agreements and lease disputes.
   
• Michel Nicrosi, Business & Commercial Litigation, Mobile
  Ms. Nicrosi's practice emphasis is on preventive and litigation services for businesses and individuals in corporate and white collar criminal matters.
  
  
• Lara D. Pringle,  Business & Commercial Litigation, Houston
  Ms. Pringle handles a variety of litigation matters, representing large oil and gas industry clients.  She primarily handles environmental contamination claims, commercial disputes, claims regarding indemnity agreements, and other contractual rights. She also has developed a niche in energy condemnation proceedings for pipeline companies. Ms. Pringle has defended companies in investigations involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), developed corporate compliance programs, and handled internal investigations.
  
  
• Krystal P. Scott, Business & Commercial Litigation, Houston
  Ms. Scott represents both onshore and offshore energy clients in oil and gas matters including enforcing contractual rights, compliance with industry regulations, and class actions. Ms. Scott focuses on litigation of royalty disputes; transportation, gathering, and marketing disputes; lease maintenance and operations disputes; and disputes involving error, fraud, and fraudulent transfer claims.
  
  
• Britton H. Seal, Corporate & Securities, New Orleans
  Mr. Seal represents clients  in mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; private equity transactions; business entity formation, counseling, and capitalization; and public company securities compliance. He has worked with a wide range of domestic and foreign, public and privately held clients in the technology, financial, health care, manufacturing, transportation, and real estate industries.
  
  
• Michael Anthony Shaw, Business & Commercial Litigation, Mobile
  Mr. Shaw's practice focuses on commercial litigation, creditor's rights, post-judgment collections, and lender liability. He handles all aspects of creditor's rights work for financial institutions and investors including litigation, alternative dispute resolution, workouts, note sales, modifications, and post-judgment collections.
  
  
• Susan M. Tyler, Real Estate, New Orleans
  Ms. Tyler has significant experience in banking, commercial finance, and all aspects of commercial real estate with an emphasis in commercial lending, including commercial workouts, restructurings, and foreclosures in federal and state courts. Ms. Tyler has represented lenders and business clients in construction financing, new market and historic tax credit projects, and large developments such as multi-family, industrial, retail, hospital, oil and gas, agricultural, and timber projects.
  
  
• Mary "Wish" Ziegler, Business & Commercial Transactions, New Orleans
  Ms. Ziegler's practice focuses primarily on corporate, project, and international financial transactions, as well as general corporate and commercial transactions. She has represented global banking corporations, various non-banking financial institutions, and corporations in connection with private placements, registered securities offerings, exchange offers, tender offers, commercial paper, foreign debt offerings, foreign debt restructurings, letter of credit backed facilities, asset-backed transactions, and foreign government debt offerings and restructurings.

About Jones Walker
Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre L.L.P., with more than 375 attorneys, provides a comprehensive range of legal services to a national and international corporate client base through offices in Alabama, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, and Texas.

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