Walter J. Leger Jr., Chairman, appointed to the Board July 2020, is a prominent attorney and esteemed legal expert. Leger serves as the Senior Partner in the law firm of Leger & Shaw. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University, and received his legal education at Tulane University, where he graduated from Tulane School of Law with a concentration in Maritime Law.

After graduation, Leger worked as an admiralty associate at the Phelps Dunbar law firm. He later formed his own firm dedicated to admiralty and complex litigation, including the Hard Rock Hotel litigation, nationwide opioid litigation, the BP Oil Spill case, and the Castano Tobacco litigation to name a few.

Leger is the past President of the New Orleans Bar Foundation and the New Orleans Bar Association. The Louisiana Bar Journal named him a “Louisiana Legal Legend.” He received the “President’s Award” for leadership and public service from the New Orleans Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association and the Louisiana Association of Justice.

Leger has tirelessly served his community and Louisiana, currently sitting on the Louisiana Land Trust as Chairman, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) as a Commissioner and the New Orleans City Park Board. He is a member of the Louisiana Committee of 100 for Economic Development, the Southeast Louisiana Business Council Coalition, the New Orleans/Baton Rouge Super Region Committee, the Board of Trustees of the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Louisiana Cancer Research Center. He served as Chairman of the St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation and also as a founding Director of GNO, Inc.