Appointments to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana - Press Release

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Appointments to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana 
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<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><div align="left" style="text-align:center;"><table style="width:1112px;background-color:#428bca;"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td bgcolor="#428bca" height="21" valign="middle" width="100%"><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ffffff;">2021 Press Releases</span></strong></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table width="16%" style="width:1112px;"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><table style="width:1112px;text-align:center;"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="82" style="text-align:left;width:71px;">CONTACT:&nbsp;</td><td width="253" style="text-align:left;width:1039px;">Trina S. Vincent<br />504-310-2590</td></tr></tbody></table><div align="left" style="text-align:center;"><table style="width:1112px;border-spacing:3px;background-color:#f7ebc6;"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="38%" style="text-align:left;"><span style="color:#212073;text-transform:uppercase;"><strong>APRIL 30, 2021</strong></span></td><td width="62%"><p align="right"><span style="color:#212073;"><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</strong></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong></strong>&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration-line:underline;"><strong></strong></span><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="text-decoration-line:underline;"><strong></strong></span><strong></strong></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>APPOINTMENTS TO THE&nbsp;</strong><br /><strong>JUDICIARY COMMISSION OF LOUISIANA</strong></p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>New Orleans, LA&minus;</strong>&nbsp;Several new appointments have been made to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana, including Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Robin D. Pittman and citizen Suzanne H. Stinson. In addition, Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit, Judge John J. Molaison, Jr. was elected Commission Chair, and First Judicial District Court Judge Brady O&rsquo;Callaghan was elected Vice Chair. Further, attorney David Becker was appointed Judiciary Commission Counsel, succeeding attorney Kelly McNeil Legier.</p><p>Orleans Criminal District Court Deputy Chief Judge Robin D. Pittman was appointed judge- member of the Commission for a four-year term by the Louisiana Supreme Court, commencing January 1, 2021. Judge Pittman received her bachelor&rsquo;s degree from Loyola University New Orleans in 1991 and her juris doctor from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1996. Judge Pittman served as an assistant district attorney for the Orleans Parish District Attorney&rsquo;s Office, as deputy disciplinary counsel with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, and as an associate in the litigation section of Baldwin Haspel Burke &amp; Mayer Law Firm where she worked until her election to the Orleans Criminal District Court bench in 2009. She previously served on the Louisiana Judicial College Board of Governors and the Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics. Judge Pittman is a member of the American Judges Association, National Bar Association, Louisiana Judicial Council, Louisiana State Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, Louisiana District Judges Association, National Association of Women Judges, Fourth &amp; Fifth Circuit Judges Associations, Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, and Association of Women Attorneys. She succeeds Judge Sharon Darville Wilson as a judge-member on the Judiciary Commission.</p><p>Suzanne H. Stinson was appointed as a citizen-member of the Judiciary Commission by the Louisiana District Judges Association for a four-year term commencing March 22, 2021. This is Ms. Stinson&rsquo;s second term on the Commission. She began working at the 26th Judicial Court District as a&nbsp;court reporter in 1982. Ms. Stinson received her bachelor&rsquo;s degree in 1988, a master&rsquo;s degree in 1992,&nbsp;and a second master&rsquo;s degree in 1994, all from Louisiana Tech University. She served in the Louisiana&nbsp;National Guard from 1979 to 1982. Ms. Stinson is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management and&nbsp;received her Certificate of Judicial Administration from Michigan State University. In 1996, she was&nbsp;appointed court administrator for the 26th Judicial District Court where she worked until her retirement&nbsp;in 2014. She is a past president of the National Association for Court Management, served on the board&nbsp;of directors for the International Association of Court Management, and also served as president of the&nbsp;Louisiana Court Administrators Association. She previously served on the Judicial Compensation&nbsp;Commission, the State Court Rules Committee, the Advisory Committee to the Performance Audit on&nbsp;Jury Practices, the Disaster Recovery Planning Committee, and the Louisiana Integrated Juvenile&nbsp;Justice Information System Committee. Ms. Stinson succeeds Sibal S. Holt as a citizen-member on the&nbsp;Commission.</p><p>Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit, Judge John J. Molaison, Jr. was elected to serve as&nbsp;Chair of the Commission for a term of one year commencing December 11, 2020. Judge Molaison&nbsp;received his bachelor&rsquo;s degree from Loyola University New Orleans in 1983 and his juris doctor from&nbsp;Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in 1986. He was elected to the Louisiana Court of&nbsp;Appeal, Fifth Circuit, in 2018. From 2007 to 2018, he served on the 24th Judicial District Court, where&nbsp;he was reelected without opposition and served as Chief Judge. In addition to serving as a Drug&nbsp;Treatment Court judge, he helped create the D.W.I. Treatment Court, the Veterans Treatment Court,&nbsp;the Re-entry Court, the Swift and Certain Intensive Probation Court, and the 24th Judicial District Court&rsquo;s&nbsp;supervised misdemeanor probation program. He has served as president of the Louisiana District&nbsp;Judges Association. From 1986-2007, Judge Molaison worked with the Jefferson Parish District&nbsp;Attorney&rsquo;s Office where he held several positions including: Executive Assistant District Attorney,&nbsp;Supervisor of Parish Courts, Felony Trial Assistant District Attorney, Felony Screening Assistant District&nbsp;Attorney, and Research and Appeals District Attorney. During this time he also was a partner in the law&nbsp;firms of John Molaison, Jr. &amp; Associates 2005 - 2007 and Molaison &amp; LeBlanc 1988 - 2005. He served&nbsp;as the Prosecutor and City Attorney for the City of Westwego and the Prosecutor and Town Attorney&nbsp;for the Town of Grand Isle. Judge Molaison is the appellate judge member of the Judiciary Commission,&nbsp;succeeding Chief Judge Felicia Toney Williams. He succeeds Baton Rouge attorney Edward J. Walters,&nbsp;Jr. as Commission Chair.</p><p>First Judicial District Court Judge Brady O&rsquo;Callaghan was elected to serve as Vice Chair of the&nbsp;Commission for a one-year term commencing December 11, 2020. Judge O'Callaghan received his&nbsp;bachelor&rsquo;s degree with honors in philosophy from Yale University in 1995 and his juris doctor from&nbsp;Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1999. After two years of general civil practice&nbsp;in Baton Rouge, he served as a prosecutor in the Orleans Parish District Attorney&rsquo;s Office, and then&nbsp;returned to Shreveport to serve as an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish. Judge O&rsquo;Callaghan&nbsp;was elected in 2013 as a district judge for the First Judicial District Court, Section 3. He is president of&nbsp;the Louisiana District Judges Association and serves as a board member of the Supreme Court of&nbsp;Louisiana Historical Society. He formerly served as a hearing officer for the Commission and succeeds&nbsp;Judge John J. Molaison, Jr. as Vice Chair.</p><p>Attorney David Becker was recently appointed Judiciary Commission Counsel by the Louisiana&nbsp;Supreme Court. He received his bachelor&rsquo;s degree from The Wharton School at the University of&nbsp;Pennsylvania in 2000 and his juris doctor from The George Washington University Law School in 2007.&nbsp;&nbsp;Prior to his position as Judiciary Commission Counsel, he served as Assistant Commission Counsel for&nbsp;approximately six years. After law school, he clerked for Judge Fortunato P. Benavides on the United&nbsp;States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge William Wayne Justice on the United States&nbsp;District Court for the Western District of Texas. Mr. Becker also spent several years practicing appellate&nbsp;law at Vinson &amp; Elkins, LLP.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For more information visit <a href="http://www.lasc.org" target="_blank">lasc.org</a> or <a href="www.judiciarycommissionla.org" target="_blank">www.judiciarycommissionla.org</a> or contact Louisiana Supreme&nbsp;Court Public Information Specialist/Coordinator Trina S. Vincent at tvincent@lasc.org or (504) 310-2590. </p>
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