NEW ORLEANS—Jones Walker is pleased to announce the appointment of two of its attorneys to positions in an Order of the British Crown that has been in existence since the 11th century.

Herschel L. Abbott, Jr., a special counsel in the firm's New Orleans office, was recently invested into the Order of St. John, and Palmer C. Hamilton, a partner in the firm's Mobile and Washington, D.C. offices, was appointed a member of the Chapter of the American Priory of the Order, one of the Priory's two governing boards. Mr. Hamilton has been a member of the Order for several years.

The Order of St. John is an Order of Chivalry of the British Crown, engaged in a variety of charitable works throughout the world. All appointments to the Order are made by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as Sovereign Head of the Order, and His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, as Grand Prior of the Order.

A principal project of the Order is the operation of an eye hospital in Jerusalem that provides treatment primarily to Palestinians, a population that has a rate of blindness and serious eye disease that is 10 times the world average. Because 80 percent of these diseases are treatable if detected through early childhood screening, the Order has embarked on a major initiative to provide screening to Palestinian children at an early age. In the past 10 years, the hospital operated by the Order of St. John has treated more than 600,000 Palestinians.

The hospital has sought to foster communication and cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples by establishing programs in which it shares personnel, and engages in other cooperative projects, with physicians and staff of the Hadassah University Hospitals in Jerusalem, in the provision of treatment and in other programs such as physician and staff training.

Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre L.L.P. provides a comprehensive range of legal services to a national and international corporate client base through offices in Alabama, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

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