Marcus V. Brown

Marcus V. Brown is Executive Vice-President and General Counsel for Entergy Corporation. In this capacity he provides advice and counsel to the Board of Directors, Chairman and CEO and the executive team. He also leads the corporation’s Legal; Ethics and Compliance; Corporate Communications; Federal Policy, Regulatory and Governmental Affairs; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability and Environmental Policy; and Corporate Security and Governance groups.

Marcus is also a member of the Energy Insurance Mutual Board of Directors, the Tulane University Center for Energy Law Advisory Board, and the Louisiana State University John P. Laborde Energy Law Center Advisory Council. Prior to joining Entergy in 1995, he practiced with the New Orleans-based Stone Pigman law firm.

He received his B.A. from Southern University A&M College in 1985 and a Juris Doctor from the Southern University Law Center (SULC) in 1988, where he was a member of the Law Review. He received his MBA from the Tulane University A.B. Freeman School of Business in 2002.

Under his leadership, and in honor of the company’s effective diversity and inclusion efforts, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association selected the Entergy legal department as its 2013 Employer of Choice-South Region.

This year he was honored with National Legal Aid and Defender Association Exemplar Award. He also received the New Orleans Bar Association President’s Award in 2018. He was named to the SULC Alumni Hall of Fame in 2017.

Marcus is married to the Hon. Nannette Brown, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. They have two adult children, Christopher and Rachel Brown.

2019 Distinguished Attorney

Mary Terrell Joseph

Mary Terrell Joseph, native of Shreveport, Louisiana, graduated in 1966 from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia and began practicing law in Baton Rouge with the firm Joseph & Joseph after graduation from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1970. In 1978 Mary joined the law firm Sanders, Downing, Kean & Cazedessus, where she remained until 1983 when she left to form the firm, Rubin, Curry, Colvin & Joseph. In 1993, the firm merged with McGlinchey Stafford where she currently practices in the area of Creditor’s Rights. In January 2005, Mary was appointed Judge, Pro-Tempore for the 19th Judicial District Court.

Legal honors include the Baton Rouge Banking and Finance Law "Lawyer of the Year," Louisiana Super Lawyers (Banking); the “Crystal Gavel Award,” and in Best Lawyers in America®.

Mary has been honored as a Volunteer Activist, an Olympic Torchbearer, a YWCA Woman of Achievement, and as a Leave a Legacy honoree. She has chaired the Capital Area United Way Board and Campaign, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, Capital Area Network, the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, and the Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni Board. Mary also previously served on the Board of Directors for Baton Rouge Area Foundation Board, the Emerge Center, and many other boards.

As a member of a Baton Rouge Junior League study committee, she co-founded the Stop-Rape Crisis Center (now S.T.A.R.) and served on its Board of Directors in the 1970’s. She has been an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church since 1967.

She currently serves on the boards of the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the LSU Museum of Art Advisory Board, and the Hollins University Board of Trustees.

Mary and her late husband Cheney C. Joseph are the parents of two sons, Terrell Joseph, M.D., and Allen Fort Colley Joseph and 3 grandchildren, Reece, Chloe, and Jackson Joseph.

H. Bruce Shreves

H. Bruce Shreves is a founding member of the firm of Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP. He grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, graduated from Georgetown Law School and was admitted to the South Dakota Bar in 1969. Shortly after he was drafted, spending four years in the Army Judge Advocate General Corps. While in the army he took the Louisiana Bar, and was admitted in 1972. Shreves’ practice has consisted primarily in the areas of construction, surety law, and most recently arbitration and mediation. He was named Lawyer of the Year in both arbitration and mediation by Best Lawyers and listed in Super Lawyers as one of the Top Ten Lawyers in Louisiana.

Shreves currently serves as the chair of the Section on Fidelity, Surety and Construction Law of the Louisiana State Bar Association. He has also served as chair of the American Bar Association’s Fidelity & Surety Committee. Thirty years ago, he co-authored one of the first books in Louisiana devoted to construction law.

Shreves served many years with the Pro Bono Project. He has served on the board of Boys Town of Louisiana and is a former board member and chair of the Louisiana chapter of Bread for The World. Shreves has been married 49 years to the former Jacqueline Farnsworth of New Orleans and is the proud father of three children, Catherine, Trey, and Ashley, along with two grandsons.

Kim M. Boyle

Kim M. Boyle is a partner at Phelps Dunbar where she practices in the areas of labor and employment, civil rights, constitutional law, commercial, tort, and general litigation. Boyle served as the first female African-American President of the Louisiana State Bar Association (2009-2010) as well as the first African-American President of the New Orleans Bar Association (2002-2003).

Boyle is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Amistad Research Center, as well as serving on the Executive Committee of Tulane University and the New Orleans Business Alliance, and serves on the boards of Dillard University and Touro Infirmary. She previously served on the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, which focused upon rebuilding New Orleans post-Katrina, and served as Chair of the Health/Social Services Committee of the Commission, as well as serving on the Louisiana Recovery Authority after Hurricane Katrina.

Prior to joining Phelps Dunbar, Boyle served as Judge Pro Tempore, Division I, for the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish. She is also a former assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans. Kim received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1987 and her A.B. from Princeton University in 1984.

She is the proud daughter of the late Ernest Boyle, Jr. and Mrs. Connie W. Boyle and the sister of Wardell Boyle.

Donna D. Fraiche

Donna D. Fraiche practices as a shareholder with the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz where she chairs its Nominating Committee and formerly chaired its Women’s Initiative. Fraiche chaired the Louisiana Health Care Commission from 1998 to 2015, and served on the Louisiana Legislature’s Task Force on the Working Uninsured. She served as the first woman president of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) and was chosen for their first class of Fellows.

She is currently a Board member of the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, The Center for Planning Excellence, Woman’s Hospital and serves on three publically traded corporate boards. Fraiche is the Honorary Consul-General of Japan for New Orleans. She was a charter member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority; chaired its Long Term Community Planning effort, and served on its Health Care Committee and the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative.

Fraiche served as Chair of the Board of Loyola University, received the Integritas Vitae award, Loyola’s highest honor, and has delivered the commencement address at the Law School. Fraiche has received the LSU Esprit de Femme award, and has been recognized by City Business in their Women’s Hall of Fame. She is currently on the Board of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and a number of other Boards and civic associations.

She has served as President of the World Trade Center, Chair of the Board of the New Orleans Regional Medical Center, and on the adjunct faculty of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Administration as a preceptor for the residency program in health systems management.

Thomas M. Hayes III

Thomas M. Hayes III has practiced for forty years in Monroe, Louisiana. He obtained a B.A. with honors from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee in 1974 and a J.D. from Louisiana State University in 1977. He then began practicing with his father, Tom Jr., at Hayes, Harkey, Smith & Cascio L.L.P and where he now practices with his son, Tommy. His practice has focused on civil litigation in state and federal court across north and central Louisiana, where he has represented parties in disputes involving a broad range of subjects including professional responsibility of lawyers, architects, engineers and other professionals, product liability, property, successions, contracts, intellectual property, tort, insurance, civil rights, and employment.

He is a Senior Council Member of the Louisiana State Law Institute, and serves on its Executive Committee and its Committee on Louisiana Civil Procedure. He served five years as Bar Examiner on Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure for the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Committee on Bar Admissions. He has twice served on the LSBA Board of Governors, and on its nominating committee. He was trained as a mediator at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law, and serves as a mediator with the Patterson Resolution Group. He is a past president of the Fourth Judicial District Bar Association and the Fred Fudickar Inn of Court. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and serves as its Regent for Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. He also holds membership in several specialty bar associations.

He is married to Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Luikart Hayes of the Western District of Louisiana. They have four children and four grandchildren.