Elvige Cassard (formerly Richards)

ELVIGE CASSARD (formerly Richards), Special Counsel to the firm of Daigle Fisse & Kessenich P.L.C., maintains an extensive practice in the area of labor and employment law through pro-active advices to and legal representation of employers, including business owners and managers. Ms. Cassard received her B.A. from Newcomb College of Tulane University and, in December 1988, her J. D. from Loyola University School of Law (New Orleans). Ms. Cassard was a member of the Loyola Law Review and Moot Court Staff. She also received the Loyola Law Clinic Award and McCauley Scholarship, and served as the Student Bar Association Class Representative.

Ms. Cassard is a member of the New Orleans Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association ("LSBA"), the American Bar Association ("ABA") and the Defense Research Institute ("DRI"), and is admitted to the bars of all federal courts in Louisiana, including the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She belongs to the Labor and Employment Law ("LEL") and Litigation Sections of the ABA, and is a member of the LEL's Committees on Equal Employment Opportunity and on Ethics and Professionalism. Ms. Cassard also is on the DRI and LSBA Employment Law Committees. She is a past faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the St. Tammany Healthcare Alliance and as the 2009-2010 Chair of the Employee Relations Council of the Louisiana Association of Business & Industry ("LABI"), with a seat on LABI's Program Committee. Ms. Cassard is a contributor to the BNA treatise and its supplements, Employment Discrimination Law. In addition to effectively representing employers in labor and employment related lawsuits, arbitrations, mediations and other actions before various state and federal courts and agencies, Ms. Cassard advises clients on a wide spectrum of personnel issues and policies and has given and contributed to numerous trainings, speeches and presentations on labor and employment law issues.