Attorney
of the Month - Article published in "Attorney at Law" Magazine 2013
Todd
Wallace
The Business of Achieving
Your Dream
By Jennifer Goforth Gregory
To Todd Wallace, being a lawyer isn’t just his job or the degree hanging on his office wall. For him, his legal career represents the many opportunities and skills that the legal profession has afforded him at a young age, such as holding key positions within his firm, working on legally significant cases and leading the effort to rebuild his New Orleans neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina.
“One of the great things about the law is that it opens up so many doors that allow you to go beyond your day-to-day job,” Wallace says. “I have been fortunate to have a lot of opportunities presented to me very early in my career. I have to say that my favorite part of being a lawyer is that every day I get the chance to serve my clients, my firm and the community at large.”
While earning an undergraduate degree in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wallace also minored in speech. While completing coursework ranging from a formal debate wearing a suit and tie to acting out a humorous scene in the required introductory drama course, Wallace realized that he really enjoyed engaging an audience. “Now that I am a litigator, the training from the speech curriculum has really prepared me whether I am talking to a jury, a judge, a client or a trade group,” he says. “During college, I also recognized that I really like taking a problem and finding a creative solution. You combine a love of communicating and problem solving, and you find yourself on the way to hopefully becoming an effective lawyer.”
Every Antitrust Case is Unique
After
graduating from UNC, he graduated cum laude from Loyola University College of
Law with his J.D. in 1998 and began working in the New Orleans office of Liskow
& Lewis. When the firm’s antitrust partner retired, Wallace, a commercial
litigator, began focusing on the area of antitrust law to fill the potential
void. Ten years later, he serves as head of the firm’s antitrust and trade
regulation practice group.
“While I handle a wide variety of commercial litigation matters, I really enjoy the complexity of antitrust law and the fact that no case is alike. There are obviously standards and rules that are applied in antitrust cases, but there are very few bright line tests that guide us to the right answer. I also find antitrust law fascinating from a business perspective, especially the constant tension between encouraging free enterprise and business development while allowing smaller players in a particular industry the ability to compete.” To represent a client’s antitrust interest, it is essential to fully understand the complexities of their business and Wallace finds himself enjoying the challenge of learning new industries and concepts each day.
When Wallace worked with a team of lawyers to represent an international consulting firm against claims of price fixing brought by the Louisiana attorney general, he was instrumental in crafting a unique and creative argument that successfully led to the removal of the lawsuit from state court to federal court by arguing that the state’s suit was actually a disguised class action. “As a lawyer, it is an honor and a learning experience to work with other talented lawyers as part of a cohesive team, to have the opportunity to develop unique arguments and to see the outcome have substantial legal implications for other cases in the future. This case was very memorable because it had all three,” he says.
Wallace also has had a significant impact on the business side of Liskow & Lewis. He served as the first minority recruiting and retention partner and increased the firm’s retention rate for women and minority lawyers through the development of the firm’s first minority recruiting and retention strategic plan. He also served as the firm’s hiring partner for six years before being elected to Liskow & Lewis’ executive board of directors.
Like many lawyers, Wallace finds one of his biggest challenges is fighting the perception of lawyers. “In Louisiana, we are blessed with a number of talented and professional lawyers throughout the state. However, it only takes a handful of publicized stories about unethical, unprofessional and/or unscrupulous behavior to erode the trust that people may have for attorneys,” Wallace says. “To me, being a litigator is not about degrading the opposing attorney or billing a client as many hours as possible. It is about representing your client’s interest as effectively and as efficiently as possible.”
Using his Legal Skills Outside the Courtroom
Whenever
possible, Wallace uses the skills, experience and relationships he has made
through his law practice, clients and associations to help the legal profession
and the community. He has held leadership positions in several legal
organizations, including the New Orleans Bar Association and the Defense
Research Institute, where he now serves as the vice chair of the antitrust,
trade regulation and distribution special litigation group.
Giving back to the community is also priority for Wallace. He leads the Liskow & Lewis outreach with Judge Jay Zainey’s HELP program, which assists New Orleans homeless residents with legal needs, such as Social Security and disability issues. Additionally, he is the current president of the board of directors of VIA LINK, a United Way agency that provides the metro New Orleans community with mental health counseling and information and referral programs for a variety of needs, such as food, shelter, childcare, substance abuse treatment and medical care.
But one of his proudest and most meaningful accomplishments outside of the courthouse has been his role to help rebuild his neighborhood, Lakeview, after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. As Katrina approached, Wallace evacuated his family to Dallas. His son was two years old at the time and his wife was eight weeks pregnant with their daughter. During the storm, their home filled with nine feet of water and their neighborhood was devastated. After eventually rebuilding their home and moving back to Lakeview two years later, they saw how many other families were not able to return.
“I really wanted my kids to grow up playing in the yard with other neighborhood children and to grow up in the community from which we evacuated. I also wanted them to understand that you can overcome any challenge in life, no matter how dire the problem may seem,” Wallace says. He was named to the board of directors of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association (LCIA) and has been the president of the LCIA for the past two years. The association has been a cornerstone of the ongoing effort to rebuild Lakeview into a prospering and growing community following Katrina. “Being a part of a group of citizens working together for the community and the rebuilding gave me a tremendous sense of accomplishment,” Wallace says. He found that his unique experiences as a lawyer, including a familiarity in working with government officials and agencies to exact resolution, has helped him to play a pivotal role in the reconstruction of his neighborhood.
But as much as he loves his work as a lawyer, Wallace looks forward to coming home to his family every night. His wife is a law professor at Loyola University College of Law and she often shares her own classroom experiences while he discusses his cases with her. “My wife is a huge supporter of mine, a wonderful person, and a great role model in her own right. She is my sounding board after a long day and always knows when to simply listen and when to offer great advice,” he says.
As the first person in his family to earn a post-graduate degree and the first lawyer, he tries to use his success and career to show his children, now 7 and 10, the value of hard work. “My parents gave me the constant encouragement and support to go after what I wanted in life no matter the obstacles. Now I want my kids to see the value of pursuing your goals and the realization that if you work hard, you can achieve anything,” Wallace says. “It is important that my kids see that hard work and dedication can make a difference, not just in the office, but in your own community.”
At A Glance
Practice Area:
Business Litigation
Antitrust
Education:
B.A.—University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
J.D.—Loyola
University College of Law
Professional Memberships:
Louisiana Bar Foundation
Fellow
American Bar Association
Antitrust Section and Business Torts and Civil Rico Committee
Louisiana State Bar Association
Antitrust, Trade Regulation and Business Tort Law Section
Defense Research Institute
Chair-Elect, Antitrust, Trade
Regulation and Distribution Special Litigation Group
New Orleans Bar Association
Former Member of Executive Board of Directors of Young Lawyers
Section
Liskow & Lewis
Executive Board of Directors – Secretary
Fomer Hiring Partner
Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee
Antitrust & Trade Regulation Practice Team Leader
Awards & Honors:
AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating in Martindale-Hubbell
2013 CityBusiness
Leadership in Law Class Award Recipient
2012 DRI Leader Spotlight Award Recipient
2010 Recipient of Peter J. Compagno
Citizenship Award
*** Mr. Kenneth Todd Wallace is an attorney and founding partner of the law firm. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the legal and business professions with established excellence in trial advocacy, negotiation, strategic and initiative planning, government relations, mergers and acquisitions, and team building. See http://www.walmey.com/
