Press Release

NEW ORLEANS—Jones Walker is pleased to announce that Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named three of its attorneys "New Orleans Best Lawyers Lawyers of the Year" for 2010:

Edward F. Martin, "New Orleans Best Lawyers Employee Benefits Law Lawyer of the Year"
Rudolph R. Ramelli, "New Orleans Best Lawyers Tax Law Lawyer of the Year"
Richard P. Wolfe, "New Orleans Best Lawyers Corporate Lawyer of the Year"

Steven Naifeh, Managing Editor of Best Lawyers, said, "We continue to believe—as we have believed for more than 25 years—that recognition by one's peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. We would like to congratulate Mr. Wolfe, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Ramelli on being selected as 'New Orleans Best Lawyers Lawyers of the Year' in their respective practice areas for 2010."

Each year, Best Lawyers compiles lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current 16th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2010) is based on more than 2.8 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. This year, Best Lawyers reviewed the past two years of Best Lawyers surveys to determine which lawyers in specific practice areas and cities had received the highest peer review ratings and comments about their abilities, professionalism, and integrity. In turn, Best Lawyers has honored the lawyers with top peer review scores in their respective practice areas and cities as "Lawyers of the Year" for 2010. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as "Lawyer of the Year."

A partner in the firm's Tax & Estates Practice Group, Mr. Martin has more than 30 years of experience, concentrating in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, and employee benefit plans. As chairman of the Trust Code Revision Committee of the Louisiana State Law Institute, Mr. Martin has been the primary draftsman of important changes in Louisiana's law of trusts enacted during the past 20 years. He is a member of the Association of Employee Benefit Planners of New Orleans and has served as its President.

Mr. Ramelli has been practicing tax law for more than 25 years and is a Board-Certified Tax Specialist as certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. He has served as Vice Chair of Administration and on the Council of the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation. His practice concentrates on corporate and partnership federal income tax issues. Mr. Ramelli speaks frequently at national and state tax seminars, and he is a professor of law at Tulane University Law School and an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans.

Mr. Wolfe is a special counsel and former partner in the firm's Corporate & Securities Practice Group. He has more than 40 years of experience in corporate, securities, and merger and acquisition transactions, and has represented a number of public companies as lead counsel in such transactions. Mr. Wolfe has counseled public and private companies on a wide variety of corporate matters, including initial and subsequent public equity offerings, tender offers, proxy contests, venture capital transactions, domestic and foreign mergers and acquisitions, private offerings of securities, D&O insurance, spin-offs, and special litigation committees in derivative shareholder suits.

Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre L.L.P. (www.joneswalker.com) 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, Louisiana, and Texas.

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