Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

This trial advocacy award was established through an endowment to the Louisiana Bar Foundation in memory of Curtis R. Boisfontaine, who served as President of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel. Generous donations from Sessions, Fishman, Nathan & Israel, LLP, the Boisfontaine Family and friends established the fund.

Mr. Boisfontaine was a consummate trial lawyer who, throughout his career, adhered at all times to the highest standard of the profession. He earned the enduring respect of the courts before which he practiced and the admiration of opposing counsel and litigants. This award was established in 1994 to honor Mr. Boisfontaine's contributions and to encourage others to emulate the standard to which he adhered.

The award is presented at the Louisiana State Bar Association's Annual Meeting in June. The recipient will receive a plaque and $1,000 will be donated in their name to a non-profit, law-related program or association of their choice who provides services in Louisiana.

2014 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

Charles F. Gay, Jr.

Charlie Gay, Jr., a partner with Adams and Reese, is a litigation attorney with more than 35 years of experience in general litigation, toxic tort, product liability and medical malpractice. He joined Adams and Reese in 1983 and is a Partner, currently serving as a member of the firm's Pharmaceuticals and Products Liability team of the Litigation Practice Group. He also works extensively with the Healthcare Litigation Group.

In the last several years, Charlie has tried more than 15 major toxic tort, products liability and medical malpractice cases involving serious personal injury (e.g., quadriplegia, brain damage) to successful defense verdicts before juries in Louisiana. He is experienced in partnering with clients to achieve cost-effective, quality solutions to problems through the efficient use of resources, employment of technology, early case assessment and case management.

Charlie is a member of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, The International Society of Barristers, and many other bar groups, including the Louisiana State Bar Association and Louisiana Bar Foundation.

Charlie has served as lead counsel on hundreds of trials beginning with his practice at Martzell and Montero as a personal injury lawyer from 1976-1983 when he moved his practice to Adams and Reese, where he has continued to handle major trials for many clients.

Charlie has been the lead medical malpractice trial counsel for the Ochsner Medical Institutions for over 30 years and trial counsel for many publicly and privately held companies during his career.

Charlie is a former chair of the IADC Pharmaceutical, Medical Device Committee, as well as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and International Society of Barristers. He has served as Chair of the Louisiana State Bar Legal Malpractice insurance committee. He has also served on the Medical Legal Interprofessional Committee as co-Chair. Charlie has been a frequent lecturer in the areas of trial practice and personal injury litigation.

Charlie is married to Mary Christine "Chrissy" Lapeyre, and they have four sons and two grandchildren.

2013 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

Mary Olive Pierson

Mary Olive Pierson is a sole practitioner in Baton Rouge. Her practice focuses on lender liability, multi-party litigation, commercial contract disputes and white collar crime. Prior to opening her own firm, she practiced with Brown, McKernan, Monsour & Screen and its successor firms. Pierson earned both her B.S. and her J.D. from Louisiana State University. She clerked for the Honorable Pike Hall of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association, and the Baton Rouge Bar Association. She also has an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbel. Pierson is a past representative of the Louisiana Statewide Indigent Defender Board and a past council member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Council. She previously served as the commissioner of the East Baton Rouge Parish Airport Commission and as chief administrative officer of the Office of the Baton Rouge Mayor President. Pierson has supported the following community and charitable organizations: Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center, Baton Rouge General Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Louisiana Bar Foundation, LSU Catholic Student Center, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, O'Brien House, Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Church, Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation, St. Joseph's Academy, Special Olympics Massachusetts, and University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Ophthalmology Foundation.

2012 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

Daniel Lund

Daniel Lund a partner with Montgomery Barnett LLP, is the recipient of the Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) 2012 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award. This trial advocacy award will be presented at the Louisiana State Bar Association's 71st Annual Meeting in Destin, Florida. This award was established through an endowment to the LBF in memory of Curtis R. Boisfontaine, who served as President of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel. Generous donations from Sessions, Fishman, Nathan & Israel, LLP, the Boisfontaine Family and friends established the fund. Mr. Lund will receive a plaque and $1,000 will be donated in his name to the New Orleans Bar Association.

2011 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

William R. Forrester, Jr.

William R. Forrester, Jr. was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1968 after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia in 1965 and a Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School in 1968. Mr. Forrester was a member of the Board of Editors of the Tulane Law Review from 1966 to 1968.

He has taught Louisiana Practice at Tulane University's Law School since 1976 and received the Monte Lemann Award as the outstanding adjunct professor in 1992.

At Lemle & Kelleher, L.L.P., Mr. Forrester's areas of practice are commercial litigation, business litigation, municipal boards, securities litigation, professional liability, and class actions & complex litigation.

Presently, Mr. Forrester is a member of the New Orleans Bar Association (of which he has been a member of the Committee on Unauthorized Practice of Law since 1974). He has served on the Executive Committee of the New Orleans Bar Association. He has been elected to the House of Delegates of the Louisiana Bar Association since 1978 and the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association from 1998-2000 and 2004-2006. HE is a member of the Louisiana Law Institute Council He is the Reporter of the Civil Procedure Section of the Louisiana Law Institute and has drafted numerous amendments to the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure to make the litigation process more efficient with less traps for the unwary. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

He has been elected a member of the New Orleans Civil Service Commission since 1993 and is currently the Chairman. He has been President of the Louisiana Civil Service League and PATCH (People Attached to Children's Hospital).

Mr. Forrester was recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Mass Tort Litigation and Professional Malpractice Law.

Mr. Forrester has published articles on Louisiana Civil Procedure in the Louisiana State University and Tulane Law Reviews and Louisiana Bar Journal. He is a member of the Board of Advisory Editors of the Tulane Law Review. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Country Day School and President of its parents' organization. Mr. Forrester been honored in Louisiana Super Lawyers 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 for his work in Business Litigation; Bonds/Government Finance; and Personal Injury Defense: General.

2010 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

John M. McCollam

John M. McCollam is a founding partner of Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, LLP in New Orleans. John's diverse practice ranges from complex commercial and energy transactions and litigation to energy regulatory matters, products liability, toxic tort and environmental cases, telecommunications and intellectual property law. He has extensive experience litigating all types of oil and gas disputes, including those arising from take-or-pay gas purchase and sale contracts, onshore and offshore operating agreements, mineral leases, gas balancing agreements, farmout agreements, preferential purchase rights, purchase and sale agreements, pipeline transportation agreements, and unit agreements. John also regularly appears before the Louisiana State Mineral Board, the Louisiana Office of Conservation, and the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and he has represented clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Minerals Management Service. John has often served as an arbitrator in domestic and international oil and gas disputes, including disputes involving North Slope production from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay Field. He has given expert testimony on U.S. oil and gas law in several Australian arbitrations involving production from the Bass Straits, and he is frequently called upon to mediate complex oil and gas disputes. He has also served as a Special Master appointed by the federal court in New Orleans in a complex gas balancing dispute.

Additionally, John has broad experience defending class action litigation in state and federal courts, including tobacco products liability actions, actions involving oil and gas pricing and gas measurement practices, and pharmaceutical products liability actions. He also recently has handled matters involving trademark infringements, commercial real estate disputes, and telecommunication licensing and permitting.

At Tulane Law School, John was elected to the Order of the Coif. He served on the Board of Editors of the Tulane Law Review and was Editor-in-Chief in 1958-1959. Currently, John is a Fellow of the American and Louisiana Bar Foundations and the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of New Orleans (Executive Committee, 1969-70; Secretary, 1978-79; First Vice President, 1980-81), Louisiana State (Chairman, Mineral Law Section, 1975-76), Energy, and American Bar Associations, the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel (Board of Directors, 1983-84) and the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute (Advisory Counsel, 1981-82). He is also a Member of the Dean's Council and Professor Emeritus of Tulane University School of Law, where he taught courses on basic and advanced oil and gas law from 1963 to 1987. John additionally has published numerous papers and articles on oil and gas matters, including a comprehensive review of basic Louisiana mineral law entitled "A Primer for the Practice of Mineral Law Under the New Louisiana Mineral Code," 50 Tul. L. Rev. 729 (1976).