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Leaders In Law
Front row (l to r): John Dubreuil, Mick Fisse, Jim Bradford.
Back row (l to r): Mike McMahon, Rick Kessenich.
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Inside Northside
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founding partners relocated their law practice to the northshore from downtown New Orleans with a client base that was primarily aviation related. Since then, the firm has flourished, going from a small boutique practice to a full-service law firm practicing in virtually all areas of the law, save for family and criminal law. Primary areas of concentration include commercial transactions, commercial litigation, maritime, product liability, aviation and construction litigation, eminent domain, real estate and wills, trusts and estate planning. The various practice groups are headed by partners Mick Fisse, Rick Kessenich, Jim Bradford, John Dubreuil, Mike McMahon and Jon Van Steenis. Mick Fisse has worked to develop the commercial practice to include client support on litigation and arbitration matters across and outside the United States. Rick Kessenich is the leader of the maritime group, the largest practice group. Along with Mike McMahon, he manages the extensive admiralty practice, which involves five of the 14 lawyers. John Dubreuil leads the products liability and construction litigation practice groups. Jim Bradford, the firm’s managing partner, heads up the commercial transactions group for mergers and acquisitions, securities and business organization tasks, as well as the wills, trusts and estate planning group. Jon Van Steenis heads the medical malpractice group, representing local and national interests alike on a statewide basis. The firm also maintains an extensive and unique eminent domain practice group serving government and private clients with acquisition needs. In 2005, the firm enlisted Holly & Smith Architects of Hammond to design an office that would pay homage to its Madisonville surroundings and serve as an example of quality architectural design in St. Tammany Parish. The resulting structure garnered numerous awards, including among them the 2006
Daigle, Fisse & Kessenich PLC You may not have heard of Daigle, Fisse & Kessenich—the law firm is one of the best-kept legal secrets on the northshore. With 14 lawyers under one roof, the practice is the largest in St. Tammany Parish, serving national and international clients as diverse as The General Electric Company, The Coca Cola Company, AIG Insurance Group and Cessna Aircraft. The firm does extensive work for local clients as well, including The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the St. Tammany Parish Hospital, operating from an environmentally friendly, architectural award-winning building in Madisonville, which you may have driven past dozens of times without realizing it. More important to its loyal client base, the firm offers a high-caliber legal practice at a reasonable cost as a result of maintaining a lower overhead than its city-center counterparts. The mission statement of Daigle, Fisse & Kessenich states: “The founding goal of the firm was to combine the legal skills and litigation experience found in large metropolitan firms with the community values and virtues of a smaller, more personal practice. We continue to pursue that goal, as we grow to meet the needs of our clients.” And grow they have. The firm was founded in 1993, when its
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