Frank X. Neuner, Jr., Chairman
1001 West Pinhook Road, Suite 200
Lafayette, LA 70503
Term: 12/03/2012 - 12/02/2016 (pending final confirmation)
Appointed by: Governor

Frank X. Neuner, Jr. received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1972 and a Juris Doctor in 1976 from Louisiana State University. He has been a partner with Laborde & Neuner in Lafayette, Louisiana since its formation in 1987 and serves as the Managing Partner. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1994.

Mr. Neuner is a member of Louisiana, Texas and American Bar Associations, the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, the Defense Research Institute and the Maritime Law Association of the United States. He served as Treasurer of the Louisiana State Bar Association from 2002-2004, and was President of the Louisiana State Bar Association in 2005-2006. Mr. Neuner is a past president and Board Member of the Lafayette Parish Bar Association and the Lafayette Parish Bar Foundation, and was a member of the House of Delegates of the Louisiana State Bar Association from 1980-1996. He was on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association from 1997-1999. Mr. Neuner was recently elected as the ABA State Delegate for Louisiana.

Mr. Neuner is the Chair of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, and he was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal to the Drug Policy Board in 2008. On June 9, 2006, the Louisiana State Bar Association's twenty living Past Presidents honored Mr. Neuner for his outstanding service to the profession, the judiciary and the public in response to the unprecedented challenges of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In December of 2006, The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers presented Mr. Neuner with the Public Defender Gideon Award. In 2008, the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center named Mr. Neuner as the Distinguished Alumni of the Year.

Judge Robert J. Burns (Retired)
4513 Taft Park
Metairie, LA 70002
Term: 01/01/2011 - 12/31/2014
Appointed by: Chief Justice, Louisiana Supreme Court

Robert J. Burns was elected a State District Judge in 1978 for the 24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson. He was re-elected parish wide without opposition in 1984 and 1990. He did not seek re-election in 1996. Judge Burns served many years on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana Judicial College by appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He is a 1969 graduate of the Loyola Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana and practiced civil law before being elected a judge.

Since retirement, Judge Burns has accepted assignments from the Louisiana Supreme Court in high profile cases, both criminal and civil. Judge Burns was named to the Constitution Project's death penalty initiative, Washington D.C. in 2001. The committee published Mandatory Justice, Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty. He is currently a panel member of Perry Dampf Dispute Solutions, a Louisiana mediation and arbitration company.

Judge Burns is a former Kiwanis Club president and is currently chairman of the Board of Brother Martin High School, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Addison K. Goff, IV
Post Office Box 2050
Ruston, LA 71273-2050
Term: 2/24/2013 - 2/24/2017 (pending final confirmation)
Appointed by: Speaker of the House of Representatives

Add Goff practices law with his wife Shelley Goff and his father A. Kennon Goff, III, in the law firm founded by A.K. Goff, Jr., in 1931. Although maintaining a general law practice, the firm focuses on representing victims of defective firearms and ammunition. Goff & Goff has represented clients in nearly every state in the country.

Add joined the firm in 1993, after having served as a law clerk to Justice James L. Dennis of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Add received his Juris Doctorate in 1992 from Louisiana State University, where he wrote for the Louisiana Law Review. In 2004, he graduated from Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyer's College in Dubois, Wyoming and has since completed both levels of the college's graduate curricula.

From 1998 through 2006, Add served as the Senate President's appointee to the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board, the predecessor to the current Louisiana Public Defender Board. Add has also served as the President of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association. He has lectured throughout the country, as well as in Quebec, on the subject of defective firearm and ammunition litigation and analysis.

In 2010, Add will complete his second term as a Hearing Committee Chairman for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, in charge of holding evidentiary hearings for the Louisiana Supreme Court's decisions on ethical complaints against lawyers.

From 1999 through 2004, Add served as the president of Christian Community Action, an interdenominational organization for the provision of food and clothing to the poor in Lincoln Parish. From 2004 to 2007, he was on the Board of Directors for Louisiana MedCamps, an organization that hosts summer camps for disabled children.

Add is an Eagle Scout and also has been a Tae Kwon Do and Judo Instructor.

Leo Hamilton
1 American Place, Suite 2300
Post Office Box 3197
Baton Rouge, 70821
Term: 2/1/2013 - 01/31/2017 (pending final confirmation)
Appointed by: Governor

Leo C. Hamilton, a partner of the firm Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, Baton Rouge Office, practices in the areas of labor and employment law, administrative law, constitutional law and governmental relations. Mr. Hamilton graduated from LSU in 1973 and received his law degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law School at Louisiana State University in 1977. He has been admitted to the practice of law in Louisiana since 1980.

Mr. Hamilton belongs to the following professional associations: Louisiana State Bar Association (Member), American Bar Association (Member), National Bar Association, (Member), Federal Bar Association, (Member), Louis A. Martinet Legal Society (Member), Baton Rouge Bar Association (Past President and Past member of the Board of Directors and various standing committees), American Association of Bar Presidents (Member), House of Delegates and the Budget Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association (Past Member), House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (Past Member), Louisiana Bar Foundation Community Partnership Panel (Member), Louisiana State Law Institute (Council Member), Louisiana Public Defender Board (Member), Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance (Board Member), Alumnus of Leadership Baton Rouge and Leadership Louisiana, AFSCME, Louisiana Council No. 17 and Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana State Department of Labor (Past Assistant Director), Council for A Better Louisiana (Regional Advisory Board, Member), Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic (Board Member), American Red Cross (Past President), 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge (Member and Past Board Member), City Club of Baton Rouge (Board Member), River City Jazz Coalition (Board Member), Omnicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Society (Member), Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity (Member).

Craig F. (Frank) Holthaus
618 Main Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70801
Term: 2/1/2013 - 1/31/2017
Appointed by: President of the Senate

Frank Holthaus is a partner of the firm deGravelles, Palmintier, Holthaus & FrugÈ. Mr. Holthaus received his law degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law School at Louisiana State University in 1975. His practice focuses on federal criminal matters, including Title 18, environmental, anti-trust and corrupt foreign practice act violations, as well as personal injury cases in all courts.

Mr. Holthaus belongs to the following professional associations: Baton Rouge Bar Association (President, 1996-1997; Secretary, 1994; Treasurer, 1993; Member, Board of Directors, 1987-1996; Chairman: Local Criminal Court Rules, Middle District of Louisiana; Court Liaison Committee, 2000); Louisiana State Bar Association (President, Criminal Law Section, 1982; Member, House of Delegates, 1990-1994; 1996-2000; 2002-present) Judicial Liaison Committee 2007-present); American Bar Association (Member: Standing Committee on Grand Juries, 1985-1992; White Collar Crime Committee, 1992-1996; Federal Court Bench Bar Liaison Committee, 1999); Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Charter Member, 1985; Legislative Liaison, 1986-1990; Member, Board of Directors, 1986-1987); Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association (Chair, Criminal Law Section, 2007); Baton Rouge Lawyers for Criminal Justice (President, 1983); Supreme Court of Louisiana Committee on Standards on Juror Use and Management; CJA Panel Selection Committee for Middle District of Louisiana.

Reverend Dan Krutz
527 North Boulevard, 4th Floor
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Term: 01/01/2010 - 12/31/2013
Appointed by: Executive Director, Louisiana Interchurch Conference

Rev. Dan Krutz is the Executive Director of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference (LIC), a statewide association of churches with offices in Baton Rouge. Historically, a major effort of the LIC has been a focus on criminal justice reform. Representatives of the churches over the years monitored conditions of the prisons and called for changes in treatment of those incarcerated. Through the efforts of the LIC an Interfaith Chapel was constructed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1980, and the LIC has supported efforts of the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation to build Interfaith Chapels at all the State Correctional Centers.

A recent focus of the work of LIC Commission on Criminal Justice has been advocacy for Juvenile Justice Reform and monitoring the implementation of the legislative reforms of 2003. Rev. Krutz served on the legislative task force on juvenile justice that made recommendations that were later included in the reform act.

Rev. Krutz received his BA from Southern Methodist University, Master of Divinity from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in New Haven, CT and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. Rev. Krutz was ordained as an Episcopal Priest in 1971. He has served in several Churches around Louisiana. He currently serves as Priest in Charge of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Denham Springs.

Robert Lancaster
LSU Law Center
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Term: Term is pending final confirmation
Appointed by: Governor, representing Paul M. Hebert Law Center

Robert Lancaster is Director of LSU Law's Clinical Legal Education Program and the Singletary Professor of Professional Practice. He currently teaches the Family Law Clinic and the Family Mediation Clinic. Prior to LSU, he was a Clinical Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law -Indianapolis where he taught in the Civil Practice Clinic as well as the Judicial Externship Program, Lawyering Practice, and a course exploring wrongful convictions titled Convicting the Innocent. Lancaster taught in the Criminal Justice Defense Clinic as a Practitioner-in-Residence at the Washington School of Law, American University in Washington, D.C. and was a Cover Fellow at the Yale Law School from 1997 – 2001. Prior to teaching, Lancaster represented death row inmates in state and federal habeas proceedings in the Capital Division of the Indiana State Public Defender’s Office.

Lancaster was the faculty director of the China Trial Advocacy Institute (CTAI) from 2004 – 2008. CTAI was a rule of law and human rights project headquartered at Renmin University School of Law in Beijing and funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor of the United States Department of State.

Lancaster is a member of the Louisiana State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In addition to his service on the Louisiana Public Defender Board, Lancaster serves on the Access to Justice Policy Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Board of the Louisiana Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Luceia LeDoux
400 Poydras Street, Suite 2950
New Orleans, LA 70130
Term: 01/01/2010 - 12/31/2013
Appointed by: Chief Justice, Louisiana Supreme Court

Luceia LeDoux is the director of public safety/governmental oversight grants for Baptist Community Ministries, a New Orleans foundation. She utilizes her twenty years of juvenile and criminal justice program experience in overseeing BCM grants and assisting others in the development of community projects focused on vulnerable populations. After Katrina, Ms. LeDoux was a loaned executive to a network of nonprofits providing recovery services.

Prior to joining BCM in November 2001, Ms. LeDoux was assistant Director of the Office of Social Service Research and Development (OSSRD) at LSU. She directed juvenile justice, corrections, addictions and mental health projects and community partnerships providing research, evaluation, technical assistance, specialized training, and advocacy. Ms. LeDoux led development of the state's truancy prevention initiative aimed at identifying children displaying early patterns of school absence. The program now operates in 23 of the state's 64 parishes, and is still expanding. In 2001 she was selected by Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana as a Champion for Children and by the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans as a 2008 Role model.

Hector Linares
Juvenile Defense Clinic
LSU Law Center, Box 25080
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Term: 04/09/13 – 04/08/17
Appointed by: Louisiana State Law Institute - Children's Code Committee

Professor Linares has been teaching and supervising student attorneys in the LSU Law Center’s Juvenile Defense Clinic since Fall of 2009. Professor Linares received his B.A. in International Relations and Latin American Studies in 2000 from Tulane University and his J.D. in 2003 from New York University School of Law, where he was an editor on the Review of Law and Social Change.

Before joining the faculty at LSU, Professor Linares was a staff attorney at Juvenile Regional Services, the juvenile public defender’s office for Orleans Parish. He also practiced disability rights law as a supervising attorney at Protection & Advocacy, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. He began his career as the Southern Poverty Law Center Special Education Fellow at the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, where his advocacy on behalf of disabled students was nationally recognized through the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) Award for Distinguished Advocacy for the Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities. Professor Linares is also a member of the Southern Juvenile Defender Center Advisory Committee and has served as team leader for the Louisiana Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network.

Thomas L. Lorenzi
508 Pujo St.
Lake Charles, LA 70601
Term: 12/03/2010 - 12/02/2014
Appointed by: President, Louisiana State Bar Association

Tom Lorenzi received his BA from Duquesne University in 1972 and JD from LSU in 1975. Since then (1975), he has been in private practice in Lake Charles, currently with the firm of Lorenzi & Barnatt LLP. Mr. Lorenzi co-founded the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, as well as the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), to fight for reform of capital defense and juvenile reform. For many years he has served in the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA) House of Delegates, currently serving on the Legislation Committee. He has also previously served on the Louisiana State Law Institute in the areas of criminal procedure and bail reform. Mr. Lorenzi is a former president of LADCL and the Southwest Louisiana (SWLA) Bar Association. He is a Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, was named Louisianaís Distinguished Attorney by the Louisiana Bar Foundation in 2007 and was awarded the David A. Hamilton Lifetime Achievement award by the Louisiana State Bar Association in 2007. He has also received the LACDL Justice Tate award and the Sam Dalton Capital Advocacy Award. In December 2010, he was appointed to the Louisiana Public Defender Board.

Pamela Metzger
Tulane University School of Law
6329 Freret Street
New Orleans, LA 70118
Term: 08/10/2009 - 08/09/2013
Appointed by: Governor, representing Tulane University School of Law

Pamela Metzger joined the Tulane faculty in 2001 as Director of the Criminal Law Clinic. After her graduation from law school, Professor Metzger worked as associate attorney in the Federal Defender Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York, and then as associate at a private firm in New York. She has taught in the criminal litigation area at Brooklyn Law School, and at the law schools of Fordham University and Washington and Lee University. Professor Metzger is editor of the Clinical Law Blog. In 2007, she was selected by the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education as the recipient of the Shanara Gilbert Emerging Clinician Award. In the announcement of the award, special note was made of Professor Metzger's work to re-build the Orleans Parish criminal justice system after Hurricane Katrina.

Jacqueline Nash
Southern University Law Center
PO Box 9294
Baton Rouge, LA 70813
Term: 02/14/12 - 02/13/2016
Appointed by: Governor, representing Southern University Law Center

Jacqueline Nash, Clinical Professor for the Juvenile Law Clinic, received her B.A. from Southern University and her J.D. from the Southern University Law Center. Professor Nash also serves as coach and adviser for the American Association for Justice Mock Trial team. Prior to joining the clinic staff full-time in February 1998, Professor Nash was an adjunct professor with clinic during the fall semester of 1997. She is the owner and operator of Blessed Event Adoptions, a private adoption agency, specializing in the placement of minority children. From 1992 through 1995, she was the Executive Director of the Louisiana Legal Consortium, Inc., a Legal Services Corporation training and support program. She was a supervising attorney for the Public Benefits Section and Elderly Protective Services of Capital Area Legal Services from 1989 to 1992. Professor Nash also was Regional Attorney for the Office of Community Services and an Assistant Parish Attorney for the City-Parish government of Baton Rouge. Professor Nash is also a national motivational speaker and has been published in the fields of international human rights and access to justice.

Herschel E. Richard, Jr.
Cook Yancey
333 Texas St. Suite 1700
Shreveport, LA 71101
Term: 07/21/2011 - 01/21/2015

Appointed by: President, Louisiana State Bar Association

Herschel E. Richard, Jr. was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi and received his high school education in Springhill, Louisiana. He graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in English in 1967 and received a Law Degree from the Louisiana State University School of Law in 1970, where he was a member of the Louisiana Law Review. He is married to the Reverend Mary B. Richard who is the Rector of Church of the Holy Cross. The Richards have three children, Bill, 39; Mackie, 37; and David, 35.

Mr. Richard’s legal practice involves all types of civil litigation including class actions, products liability, eminent domain, and legal and medical malpractice. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, and the Louisiana Bar Foundation. He is the past president of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel and is a Master Bencher in the Harry V. Booth and Judge Henry A. Politz American Inns of Court. He is also the immediate past president of the Louisiana Bar Foundation. He is a member of the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute and was the recipient of the Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award in 2000.

D. Majeeda Snead
Loyola University School of law
7214 St. Charles Avenue, Box 902
New Orleans, LA 70118
Term: renewed term is pending final confirmation
Appointed by: Governor, representing Loyola University School of Law

D. Majeeda Snead started her legal career as the 1985 recipient of the Reginald Hebert Smith Fellowship working at New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation in the Family Law Unit. During that fellowship she established an in house relationship with Catholic Charities representing displaced battered women. In 1987 she joined the law firm of Howell & Bayer and in 1990 became a partner in the law firm of Howell & Snead, specializing in civil rights, plaintiff civil litigation, criminal defense and family law.

In 1999, Professor Sneed was invited to be a Visiting Clinical Professor in the Loyola Law Clinic teaching in the area of criminal defense. She was asked to join the faculty in 2001. In July 2007 she became the Acting Director of the Loyola Law Clinic serving until August 1, 2008. In July 2008 she was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to serve as Judge Pro Tem in Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans where she served until August 22, 2008. She is also one of the Governor's appointees to the Louisiana Public Defender Board. Prior to that appointment she was a member of the Louisiana Task Force on Criminal Defense.

Gina Womack
1600 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70113
Term: 06/21/2012 - 06/20/2016 (pending final confirmation)
Appointed by: Louis A. Martinet Society

Gina Womack is the director and co-founder of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), a statewide membership-based organization dedicated to creating a better life for all of Louisiana's youth, especially those who are involved, or at risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. Ms. Womack first came to the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) as the Office Administrator. However in 2001, Ms. Womack founded FFLIC along with other members, became an organizer and began to conduct extensive community outreach efforts, recruiting participants and facilitating meetings. She was lead organizer of FFLIC's mock Jazz Funeral with parents along with various other direct action events that gave FFLIC a voice within the Louisiana Legislature and has allowed parents to recognize their power. Since its inception, FFLIC has worked with allies to close two juvenile prisons and is embarking upon a statewide campaign to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline in Louisiana.

Ms. Womack is a board member of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, the Petra Foundation and Metairie Park Country Day School. She is also a 2006 Petra Fellow, 2009 Juvenile Justice Project Advocate of the Year and 2009 Ms. Foundation Women of Vision award. FFLIC also received the 2009 NJJN & CFYJ Organization of Distinction Award.

Judge Robert Brinkman
3553 Hwy 152
Opelousas, LA 70570
Term: Ex Officio
Appointed by: Louisiana Public Defenders' Association

Robert Brinkman is a retired judge of the 27th Judicial District Court. Judge Brinkman received his B.S. Degree in Business Administration in 1956 from Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree and his Juris Doctorate in 1962 from Louisiana State University, and he was admitted to the practice of law in 1962.

In 1967, after five years of private practice, Mr. Brinkman entered the office of J.Y. Fontenot, District Attorney. In 1972, he became a full-time assistant District Attorney. Judge Brinkman became chief felony prosecutor in St. Landry Parish in 1973 and remained in that position until 1983, when he was elected Judge in the 27th Judicial District Court. Judge Brinkman retired from the judiciary in 1999, and he currently sits as a judge in various jurisdictions by appointments from the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Judge Brinkman is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the Louisiana District Judges Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Opelousas Chamber of Commerce, and the American Judges Association. He has also served on the Louisiana District Attorney's Association Board of Directors, on the St. Landry Parish Democratic Executive Committee, and the St. Landry Parish Home Rule Charter Commission.

Rebecca Hudsmith
102 Versailles Blvd., Suite 816
Lafayette, LA 70501
Term: Ex Officio
Appointed by: Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Rebecca L. Hudsmith serves as Federal Public Defender for the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana and has held that position since the founding of the office in December of 1993. Prior to her appointment as federal public defender, Ms. Hudsmith was engaged primarily in the private practice of criminal defense law in Shreveport, Louisiana. She also worked as an associate at the Washington D.C. offices of Steptoe & Johnson (1981-1983) and served as the founding director of the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center in New Orleans, Louisiana (1988-1990). She is admitted to practice law in both Louisiana and the District of Columbia. Ms. Hudsmith is a 1980 graduate of the LSU Law Center, where she served as senior associate editor of the Louisiana Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. She is a former law clerk for the late U.S. Circuit Court Judge Albert Tate, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1980-1981)