Marshall Redmon Honored With LSBA Citizen Lawyer Award for Community and Pandemic Initiatives
NEW ORLEANS — July 12, 2021 — Phelps Managing Partner Marshall Redmon received the 2020 Citizen Lawyer Award from the Louisiana State Bar Association for his leadership and community work through the pandemic and in his two years as managing partner.
The Citizen Lawyer Award is given to one member of the bar every year to recognize unsung heroes in our community who have performed services out of a sense of duty, responsibility and professionalism.
As New Orleans battled COVID-19, Marshall started a weekly call among 30 New Orleans law firm leaders to protect employees, stabilize firms and continue legal services unhindered. But when New Orleans became a pandemic hotspot, the group quickly pivoted to helping the community as a whole. They created L.I.G.H.T (Lawyers’ Initiative Giving Hospitals Thanks). The law firms involved raised more than $150,000 to feed frontline health care workers and support New Orleans's beloved food and music industries. These efforts fed the staff at five hospitals three meals a day for a month while they were caring for patients. Marshall also organized the purchase of over $50,000 in gift cards to locally owned restaurants to help them stay afloat during the shutdown.
“The financial side of this was amazing, but the personal sacrifice and the caring at a time when most people were looking inward…that’s what makes a citizen lawyer.” said LSBA president H. Minor Pipes, III.
“While running this law firm and making sure that all of us…were able to go forward, Marshall was thinking outward. He wasn’t just looking inward as to the effects on Phelps Dunbar,” said Phelps partner Kim Boyle. “His ability to bring everybody to work together to address issues like raising money for the hospitality industry and also critical societal issues like diversity and inclusion in the legal profession really says a lot for who Marshall is.”
Marshall was also recognized for other community outreach initiatives he put in place as managing partner. Knowing how technology helps drive innovation, Marshall formed a partnership between Phelps Dunbar and Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business to pilot artificial intelligence (AI) programs that will improve legal services. The initiative explores how AI, particularly data analytics, can identify business trends, develop litigation strategies and increase efficiency.
Marshall is a devoted supporter of the arts and of the potential of young artists to pursue their dreams. He partnered with local high schools to fill the walls of Phelps’ New Orleans office lobby with student artwork. Phelps has highlighted artists from Benjamin Franklin High School, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Edna Karr High School and Lusher Charter School. Each year, Phelps hosts receptions for the artists and their families. Artists can sell their pieces, and Phelps donates to each school’s art department.
“It’s so heartening to be so blessed to go to work every day with people who are special, who are caring, who think beyond themselves and who try to contribute.” said Marshall. “It’s about the team. It’s easy to help to lead an organization such as this when everybody does their part.”
Marshall continues to use his platform as managing partner to help the community thrive. He was honored at a reception on July 7 at Phelps’ New Orleans office.
About Phelps Dunbar
Phelps is a full-service law firm of more than 300 attorneys. We blend valuable traditions and progressive ideas to foster a culture of collaboration among our lawyers in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and London. Our six core practice groups — admiralty, business, health care, insurance, labor and employment, and litigation — work together to offer clients a progressive, diverse practice and partnership that handles a broad range of sophisticated business needs regionally, nationally, and internationally.
