Board of Directors

Robert A. Kutcher, President

Robert A. Kutcher is the managing partner in the law firm of Kutcher Tygier & Luminais, LLP, in Metairie, Louisiana. His practice is divided between commercial litigation and real estate work. Mr. Kutcher writes and speaks extensively on business entities, real estate, litigation issues and ethics. He is a past President of the Louisiana State Bar Association and is a past President of the N.O. Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, past Chairman of the Louisiana Disciplinary Board, and past Chairman of the Louisiana Advisory Committee, U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Mr. Kutcher graduated from Cornell University in 1972 and received his J.D. from Loyola University (Cum Laude) in 1975. For many years, Mr. Kutcher has been designated a Super Lawyer and named to Best Lawyers, Commercial Litigation and Real Estate, Bet-the-Company Litigation and Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law, including Lawyer of the Year in 2013, 2019 and 2023.

Patrick A. Talley, Jr., Treasurer

Patrick A. Talley, Jr. is a partner in the New Orleans office of Phelps Dunbar, LLP. He received a BA degree in 1976 from Armstrong College (Georgia Southern University), his JD degree in 1982 from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and an LLM in Energy and Environmental Law in 1993 from Tulane University Law School. He was admitted to practice in Louisiana in 1980. He also is admitted in Texas.

Talley served as secretary of the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA) from 2019-21 and was a member of the LSBA’s Board of Governors from 2014-17 (First Board District). Prior to this service, he was a member of the LSBA’s House of Delegates (since 1994) and was re-elected to the House in 2017. He also serves on the Louisiana Bar Journal’s Editorial Board.

He is a member of the Louisiana Bar Foundation. He also is a member of the New Orleans, American, Federal, 5th Circuit and Baton Rouge bar associations, the State Bar of Texas, the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel (secretary and Executive Committee member), the Maritime Law Association of the United States (proctor), among others.

He is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized in several editions of Best Lawyers in America, including as the 2016 New Orleans Lawyer of the Year in Railroad Law. He also has been recognized in several editions of Louisiana Super Lawyers and in New Orleans City Business’ “Leadership in Law.”

In his community, Talley serves on the boards of the Louisiana Southeast Council Boy Scouts of America and Holy Name of Jesus School. He also was a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (Environmental Task Force member), the New Orleans Charter Schools Foundation (vice president), Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity (international president), the Carrollton Boosters, Inc. (president), the Louisiana Children’s Museum, St. George Episcopal School and the Academy of the Sacred Heart (president).

He is married to Sharon Parker Talley and they have three children, a daughter-in-law and one grandson.

Bradley J. Tate, Secretary

Bradley J. Tate is a Senior Tax Manager in the New Orleans office of Hannis T. Bourgeois, LLP. He received a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2005 and his JD/BCL from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 2008. He also earned an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Alabama in 2012. He is licensed to practice in Louisiana and in the United States Tax Court.

Brad served as the 2017-2018 Chair of the Louisiana State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Over the year he served as a district representative, secretary, and chair-elect of the YLD. He has been a member of the LSBA Committee on the Profession and Bar Governance Committee. He was appointed for a term as the ABA YLD Tax Committee Chairman. He is a member of the New Orleans Estate Planning Council and the New Orleans Planned Giving Council, along with the Jefferson, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans Bar Associations.

https://www.htbcpa.com/staff/bradley-j-tate/

Honorable Sandra Cabrina Jenkins, Director

Honorable Sandra Cabrina Jenkins is a former Assistant District Attorney for the Parish of Orleans, criminal defense attorney, and certified accredited Veterans Affairs attorney, practiced law for 23 years before she was elected to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal on November 6, 2012. Judge Jenkins was re-elected to a second term, unopposed, in 2022.

She is a graduate of Louisiana State University (Political Science); Southern University, (Master of Public Administration); Southern University Law Center, (Juris Doctor); and Mercer University, McAfee School of Theology, Atlanta, GA (Master of Divinity).

Judge Jenkins has served as a faculty member of the National Judicial College; the National Judicial Opioid Task Force faculty member for the State of Louisiana and a Judicial Education Faculty Member for the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Domestic Violence LPOR program. Judge Jenkins was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for JLAP (Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, Inc.). She serves as Secretary of the Louisiana Judicial Council National Bar Association, co-chairs the Bi-laws committee of the American Judges Association, is on the Executive Board of The Fourth and Fifth Circuit Judges Association, and has served as the Louisiana state chair for District 6 of the National Association of Women Judges. She also serves on various committees of the Louisiana State Bar Association, American Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges and the American Judges Association. She is on the Board of Directors for Operation Restoration, an organization supporting women and girls impacted by incarceration. Judge Jenkins has served as an adjunct professor at Xavier University of Louisiana since 2010.

Judge Jenkins makes every effort to blend her profession, ministry and community involvement. She is a licensed Minister. Minister Jenkins developed Sisters of T.A.M.A.R, a ministry for women and girls who have experienced sexual/domestic violence. She also facilitates the annual Women’s Retreat, EPREP (Empowering Women through Prayer, Restoration, Expectation and Promise). For more than a decade Minister Jenkins authored “Giving God 40 Days” a compilation of Meditations and Prayers for the Church’s 40 days of Fasting and Prayer.

In 2015, she created Judge Jenkins Law Camps. The Law Camps are an educational tool to encourage community dialogue about the judicial system, the Rule of Law, and legal issues relevant to the diverse communities in our City. Her camps include “Justice without Bias,” “Law, Body and Soul,” and “The Civility of Civics.”

Honorable Jay C. Zainey, Director

Honorable Jay C. Zainey was appointed by President George W. Bush on February 19, 2002. He is the past President of the Louisiana State Bar Association, and co-founder of SOLACE, an LSBA program, which provides services to members of the legal community and their families who experience tragedies. 27 states and Puerto Rico have started SOLACE Programs. The Federal Bar Association has also adopted the SOLACE Program.

In 2004, Jay organized the Homeless Experience Legal Protection (H.E.L.P.) Program. In this program, attorneys provide legal consultation services and notary services. Programs are now in 37 cities throughout the country. Plans are underway to start H.E.L.P. Programs in other major cities. The Program has been instrumental in assisting many members of the homeless community escape the bonds of homelessness, rebuild their lives, and restore their dignity.

He assisted in developing a Homeless Court in New Orleans, and is assisting in developing Veterans Courts in Jefferson Parish, St. Tammany Parish, Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish and in Federal Court.

Jonathan C. Pedersen, Director

Jonathan C. Pedersen is a partner at Howard, Reed & Pedersen. A well-respected trial lawyer in the personal injury, mass tort and medical malpractice arenas, Jonathan also represents lawyers and judges facing allegations of professional misconduct and applicants in bar admission proceedings. Jonathan also serves as a Special Master for the 24th Judicial District Court (Jefferson Parish) for all property damage cases related to Hurricane Ida. He graduated from Millsaps College in 2004 (B.S., Political Science) and earned his J.D. from Loyola New Orleans College of Law in 2007, where he was a member of the Spring National Moot Court Competition Team and was a Moot Court Teachers Assistant. From 2017 to 2022, Jonathan was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Holy Cross where he taught Law, Ethics & Policy in Healthcare Administration. Jonathan has served as a JLAP Monitor since 2014 and he currently serves as the Co-Chair of the LSBA Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

https://www.howardandreed.com

Dian Tooley-Knoblett, Director

Dian Tooley-Knoblett is the Jones-Walker Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola New Orleans College of Law. She received her J.D. from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1980, where she served as Executive Editor of the Louisiana Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Before joining the Loyola faculty in 1984, she served as law clerk to Chief Justice John A. Dixon Jr. of the Louisiana Supreme Court and was an attorney in the legal department of Shell Oil Company. She has taught over twenty common and civil law courses at Loyola, with publications in the areas of Louisiana property, sales and leases, community property, and conflict of laws. Since 1987 she has actively participated in law reform in Louisiana by serving as a member of the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute and as a member of over thirty law reform advisory committees that have drafted legislation, principally revisions of Louisiana’s Civil Code. She is the lead editor of the tenth edition of Yiannopoulos’ Civil Law Property Coursebook and is co-author of a West treatise on Louisiana Civil Law Treatise on Sales, and an Aspen coursebook on Secured Credit.