From There to Here

For many rookie attorneys in New Orleans, the big concern in 2005 was landing a job after law school. Then came the storm of the century. 

“One cannot overstate the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the issues of the law that we were dealing with,” says Kristin Beckman, a commercial defense litigator at Pipes Miles Beckman. “I took the Bar in the Superdome a month before Katrina hit, and I didn’t even know if I was going to still have a job after that. And I was very lucky that I did.”

Katrina might be one of the bellwether moments for this generation of lawyers, but there are others. In this 20th anniversary edition of Louisiana Super Lawyers, four NOLA attorneys who started their careers in 2005 talk about why they got into the profession, what’s changed, and what they’ve learned along the way.

The Appeal of Law

Brandon E. Davis, Phelps Dunbar; Immigration, Employment & Labor: From a very young age, I watched Law & Order and all of the [legal] television shows, and I thought that lawyers were doing good work—at least the lawyers who were actors seemed to be effective! I must’ve had some inspiration that I could be effective in serving people.

Kristin Beckman, Pipes Miles Beckman; Insurance Coverage, Bad Faith Litigation: Although others who know me think that I was destined for law from an early age, I was much more interested in politics. I had heard the phrase, “You can do anything with a law degree,” but I did not realize that the main thing you can be with a law degree is a lawyer. My senior year of college was 9/11, and many of my friends’ plans were disrupted. But I’d happened to have taken the LSAT that summer and had submitted a couple of law school applications, just in case my foray into politics was not as fruitful as I hoped it would be. And the next thing I knew, I had been accepted and got so excited about returning to my hometown of New Orleans. 

Steven Serio, Fishman Haygood; Real Estate: My brother-in-law was a litigator, and he was always recommending that I look into becoming a lawyer while I was at college. But I was an accounting major and worked at Deloitte for two years. As I got into doing taxes, I realized that the lawyers were driving a lot of corporate deals that I was seeing.

Lauren E. Campisi, Hinshaw & Culbertson; Banking: I was always interested in becoming a lawyer, not because I really understood what the practice entailed, but because I respected the profession. I studied economics and political science in college and always had an interest in business and finance, and this became a nice intersection of the financial market and the law. 

The Perfect Practice

Davis: When Hurricane Katrina devastated the firm as a whole and the employment practice in the region, my practice group coordinator and mentor, Nan Alessandra, told me to look at New Orleans and tell her who was responsible for rebuilding. At the time, it was migrant labor from the international community. The employers had substantial labor needs, and international families needed to be able to live, work and maintain status in the United States. So Nan directed me to begin learning immigration law and to build a career around that space of employment law. And that’s what I did.

Beckman: I loved the people at the firm where I clerked in law school. I found that they were wonderful mentors and conscientious workers, but I suspected that most areas of law might be relatively contentious. So I figured, as long as I was going to be dealing with contentious people outside of an office, I wanted to be with people that I genuinely liked when I was inside of an office. It was only after accepting my position and actually getting into the work that I realized what I had really signed up for, and I was just extremely grateful that I happened to be interested in it and good at it.

Serio: I did tax at Deloitte and it really didn’t grab me. When I started here right out of law school … I really liked seeing the tangible evidence of the deals I was working on. If I was representing a grocery store owner or a real estate developer, I was seeing those projects being built. It was a motivating factor to see your work in real life.

Campisi: I was scheduled to begin working at my first law firm the week before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. When I finally did start a few weeks later, basically the practice chose me. I did not intentionally choose consumer finance as an area of focus. It was just reflective of the needs of the firm at the time.

Change, Change, Change

Davis: When I started this work, it was just me and a typewriter. You would type out immigration petitions, and everything was done on paper, and we were not full-service. Fast forward 20 years … and we’ve grown from simply helping HR professionals in onboarding issues for international employees to being full service, supporting agribusiness, education and the healthcare industry. It’s rare to have a full-service immigration firm, definitely in our region, and also throughout the country. We do it all, and we serve the globe.

Beckman: I’ve lived through enough natural disasters and have seen enough issues litigated that, now, I find that we’re a lot better able to predict what an outcome might be in a case when we’ve had a natural disaster. Also, when I began practicing, I realized how truly difficult it was to continue to practice and be a mom or a parent. I think now there is a lot more understanding within firms and with clients, that if we cut out a whole group of people who can potentially practice, that’s not good for anyone.

Serio: I think clients have an expectation, more so now, that you’ll respond on the weekends, and even text-message questions or jump on a call, whereas before, you would get these messages through email, and if you got to it a day later, that was fine. There’s an expectation to be even more responsive and prompt these days. You always have to be on.

Campisi: Beginning in 2008, we navigated with our clients the major economic shocks and governmental reaction to those [Great Recession] changes—the advent of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, growth of state regulators, and a whole host of new laws and regulations. Those economic and legal changes have also completely changed the landscape of consumer financial services in my practice.

A Memorable Case

Davis: In a case in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana, we represented agricultural associations and large landowners that are responsible for producing the domestic sugar supply throughout the United States. The outcome of the case ultimately persuaded the federal government to go back to the drawing board and reform and reprogram federal regulations that support employers who need to bring in guest workers from foreign countries. It was the culmination of my life’s work.

A few years ago, we were successful in obtaining status for three Catholic children who migrated to the United States between the ages of 5 and 9. Now they’re teenagers. That case went on for about seven or eight years, and we were finally successful in reuniting them with their families. That was very gratifying.

Campisi: I litigated for the first six years or so of my practice. We did have a case that we won at the trial court level. We won at the appellate court level and it was ultimately appealed up to the United States Supreme Court, and we were able to win there as well. But what I’m most proud of are all the different ways that we’ve helped our clients create products, grow, manage through regulatory pressure, and defend enforcement overreach.

Beckman: After Katrina, I was dealing with a case where two companies were in a dispute about whether an oral contract had been breached and whether there was enough notice given. The whole case turned on whether there had been 30 days’ notice and whether that was an industry standard. I was tasked with taking the deposition of a couple of bigwigs in the construction world. I was the only woman and certainly the only person in their 20s, and as the deponent answered my questions, he mentioned something about 30 days. I was kind of twirling my hair and looked up and asked, “Oh, is that, like, an industry standard?” And the second he said yes, in my head, I was like, “All right, I got it.” That did, in fact, end up winning the case.

Serio: There are a few deals that come to mind. In 2006, we represented Rouses Markets when they acquired 20 Sav-A-Center and A&P stores in the Louisiana area. That was one of my first major transactions as an associate, and I learned an incredible amount in that one deal from my mentors Scott Willis and Louis Fishman. That covered all aspects of mergers, acquisitions and real estate, all in one deal, and Rouses doubled in size overnight. They’re up to about 70 stores currently. We also represent Stirling Properties, a major commercial real estate developer in the Gulf South. We’ve represented the company on significant commercial transactions over the last 18 years, including Fremaux Town Center in Slidell and Ambassador Town Center in Lafayette. Those two real estate projects combine for over 400 acres of regional mixed-use commercial development including restaurants, retail, office, industrial and multifamily. 

Lessons Learned

Davis: There’s no margin for error. It’s a service business. It’s very humbling, because this body of law is subject to massive change politically and economically. You have to be a nimble practitioner. You’re always learning something new because the law changes, and you really have to have a good bedside manner because companies who come to you are also bringing families that are placing their trust in you to secure their future in the United States.

Beckman: I actually work with my adversaries, not against them. A lot of times, I’m working with my opponent to figure out where we can find an acceptable resolution that meets the needs of the parties without having to go to trial. I joke that I actually know plaintiff counsel way better than I know most of my co-defendant attorneys. My ability to articulate my opponent’s side and to really work with them and understand where they’re coming from helps me figure out what the buttons are to press and what the drop-dead issues are.

Serio: I’ve learned not to over-paper matters and not to waste time or focus on unnecessary stylistic changes. Instead, identify the main issues for the client, forecast potential roadblocks and how to overcome them, and don’t get bogged down with irrelevant or insignificant issues to the overall deal. 

Emerging Concerns

Davis: I worry about lawyers being able to sustain serving their clients with expertise, with consistency, and with positive outcomes while also navigating the extreme pressures of not only the bar and its regulations, but also business demands, wellness, mental health, physical fitness. Secondarily, in the immigration space, we really are focused on the rapid-fire policy changes that are now prevalent in the legal space and making sure that we can support both business and individuals.

Beckman: Any time there’s economic uncertainty, companies have a tendency to tighten their belts and, very understandably, require attorneys to document what they’re doing and demonstrate that it’s necessary. But what ends up happening is that work that could be done way more efficiently by a senior or midlevel attorney is deemed by an auditor, or whoever is reviewing bills, to be the kind of work that either a paralegal should be doing, or an associate. I’m concerned that, as senior attorneys are limited in what they are permitted to do, it ultimately is not always in the best interest of the client.

Campisi: With continued innovation and adoption of things like artificial intelligence, there are pressures and expectations for lawyers to have all the answers very quickly. And that sometimes is not realistic or feasible.

Hopes for the Future

Beckman: My hope is that those of us in the practice can continue to set an example of professionalism for others entering the field. I’ve been fortunate to build lasting relationships with clients, colleagues, experts and even adversaries over the years, and those relationships reinforce the importance of integrity in everything we do. Whether it’s presenting a case to jurors or helping out in the community, the more we uphold those values, the better we serve our clients and the profession as a whole.

Serio: Real estate went through a dip in the market with rising interest rates and rising cost of insurance over the last couple years, but I’m starting to see a lot more bullish behavior by developers. They’ve been sitting on the side, not doing maybe as many big deals as they were previously, but have just come to grips with the rates and insurance costs being higher, and I’m starting to see more activity in the commercial real estate market here. Locally in New Orleans, I’m optimistic with new leadership that they’ll be improved economic opportunity and growth. 

Campisi: There are benefits to technology that help lawyers create more value for clients and innovate alongside them. In addition, the talent and collaboration are always exciting and refreshing, across the industry.