Daniel E. Davillier is the founder of the Davillier Law Group, LLC. Prior to launching the firm, Mr. Davillier was a partner at Phelps Dunbar, LLP. He advises clients in the areas of commercial finance, commercial real estate, commodities trade transactions, general business, local governmental relations, and gaming. In connection with the film industry in Louisiana, Mr. Davillier represents financial institutions and production companies concerning film finance, tax credit, and other related matters. Mr. Davillier also represents a number of professional athletes in the NBA and NFL in connection with various commercial transactions throughout the United States (including the acquisition of businesses, the establishment of 501(c)(3) non-profit corporations, and the recovery of funds from third parties).

Mr. Davillier holds a Bachelor of Science degree in General Business from the University of New Orleans. He graduated, cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 1994. While at Tulane, Mr. Davillier served as President of the Black Law Students Association and served on the Moot Court Board. He was also inducted into the international legal fraternity, Phi Delta Phi, and won American Jurisprudence Awards for Security Rights and Obligations II. He is a recipient of the 2011 Leadership in Law Award from the New Orleans CityBusiness publication and the 2012 Multicultural Leadership Award from the Louisiana Diversity Council.

Mr. Davillier is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, American Bar Association, National Bar 
Association and the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society. Mr. Davillier is also a graduate of the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute, and has served on the board of the Louisiana Children’s Museum, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, and St. Augustine High School.

George R. Wentz, Jr. is a member of the Davillier Law Group in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Wentz received his Bachelor of Sciences degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Delaware, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center, cum laude, in 1983. Mr. Wentz also served as the Administrative Editor of the Georgetown International Law Journal. Mr. Wentz was appointed to the Office of Policy Development of the Federal Trade Commission by President Ronald Reagan, where he analyzed the economic impact of trade laws and regulations, and developed and proposed legislative and regulatory approaches to enhance efficiency.

Mr. Wentz has over thirty years’ experience in handling complex international litigation, maritime litigation, oil and gas exploration and production matters, alternative dispute resolution, international transactions, constitutional law analysis, providing general business advice, and representing state and local governments. He has a reputation as a result oriented lawyer known for innovative thinking and problem solving. During the course of his career, Mr. Wentz has worked in most aspects of the oil and gas business, representing clients including Global Marine (now Transocean), Occidental Petroleum, BP, Marathon and Noble. Mr. Wentz has also represented CFE (power company of Mexico) in various matters. Mr. Wentz has also represented underwriters of various energy and power generation companies in large subrogation matters, including Houston Casualty Company and underwriters at Lloyd’s. He has expertise in international commodities transactions, including banking and financing related to those transactions, as well as international tax issues related to offshore banking. He also represents state and local governmental entities with regard to interaction and disputes with federal agencies with regard to public lands. He quarterbacked the production of a comprehensive constitutional analysis of Utah’s Transfer of Public Lands Act on behalf of Utah’s Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands.

Mr. Wentz is an active member of the Louisiana State Bar Association. He is a recipient of the 2008 Leadership in Law Award from New Orleans City Business Magazine. Mr. Wentz was active in pro bono work following Hurricane Katrina, where his efforts assisted in the formation of New Orleans’ public-private partnership for economic development.

Mr. Wentz is admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Louisiana, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the United States Supreme Court, and all Louisiana State Courts. He has also litigated cases in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, as well as in various state courts in Texas.

Mauricio Cardona is a member of the Davillier Law Group in our Sandpoint, Idaho office. He practices in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, exempted securities, FCPA compliance, due diligence for complex commercial transactions, energy law, government law, as well as general business advice. Mr. Cardona has helped clients structure offerings that raised tens of millions of dollars, conducted due diligence for multimillion dollar international transactions, conducted internal investigations for multinational companies facing FCPA compliance issues, and helped numerous businesses to establish governance protocols and management companies to reduce owner exposure.

Mr. Cardona received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law where he received the University of Iowa’s Philip G. Hubbard Human Rights Award for his work to establish the Center for Worker Justice. He also received the Dean’s Award in Contracts and Sales Transactions and worked as an Immigration Fellow at the University of Iowa’s Legal Clinic. He interned with Briggs and Morgan and Excel Energy in Minneapolis. Mr. Cardona also served on the Dean’s Advisory Council on Diversity, the Pro Bono Society, as the president of the Latino Law Student Association and vice president of the International Law Society.

Mr. Cardona holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Bradley University. Before his legal studies he worked as an account executive for an international manufacturing company with significant exposure to GSA programs and compliance. Mr. Cardona was also a project coordinator for a design-build contractor specializing in the energy industry and proof of concept facilities. During that time Mr. Cardona developed a reputation for his customer-centered approach and ability to coordinate design, manufacturing, delivery and after sale services for his clients.

After receiving his Juris Doctor, Mr. Cardona became a staff attorney for a Christian non-profit representing clients in immigration proceedings. He then joined the Dane County District Attorney’s Office where he prosecuted thousands of cases and tried over thirty of them, ranging from non-criminal Operating While Intoxicated to the biggest Possession with Intent to Deliver synthetic cannabinoids case in Wisconsin’s history. Mr. Cardona also represented the State in Dane County’s Operating While Intoxicated and Diversion Drug specialty courts.

Currently Mr. Cardona is a Commissioner in the Idaho Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a board member of the Sandpoint Kiwanis Club and Bonner Classical Academy, the Vice President of the Sandpoint Community Resource Envision Center, and a founding member and Vice President of the Idaho St. Thomas More Society.

Mr. Cardona is licensed in Idaho and admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in Idaho state courts, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a member of the Idaho Mediation Association, is registered as a civil case mediator through the Idaho Supreme Court, and is a FINRA arbitrator.

Mr. Cardona is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in English.

Charles F. Zimmer II is the Head of the Litigation Practice Group in the New Orleans, Louisiana office. Mr. Zimmer has guided multi-national and closely held companies away from risk and eliminated threats through successful litigation and negotiation for over 20 years. His litigation experience includes extensive complex and commercial litigation in federal and state courts, including MDL, class, and mass individual actions. Those matters cover a wide breadth of business litigation from routine business contract and labor disputes to federal antitrust class actions as well as financial fraud litigation and professional accounting defense of a Big Four accounting firm. Mr. Zimmer has extensive experience leading skilled teams from the inception of the dispute, through discovery and trial and on to argument before the courts of appeal.

In addition to representing businesses, Charles is a business owner, inventor, and patent holder. Having lived the role of both client and counsel, Charles understands the need to provide efficient, quality work clients can trust without exception.

Mr. Zimmer is a Tulane Law School graduate (J.D.), and majored in accounting (B.S.) at Louisiana State University. Although he does not practice public accounting, Charles has passed all sections of the national Uniform Certified Public Accounting Examination. He is admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court, the State Courts of Louisiana, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, and the federal district courts of Louisiana.

Some of the reported matters Charles has worked on include the following:

• Odell Beckham, Jr. and Royalty Only v. Nike USA, 22CV38822, Fourth Judicial District Circuit Court of Oregon, 2023 Ore. Cir. LEXIS 1009 (re: breach of endorsement contract)

• Metro Serv. Grp. v. Waste Connections Bayou, Inc., United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 2023, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 21278, 2023 WL 5235222 (re: breach of contract)

• In re City of New Orleans, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 2023, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 15448 (re: petition for writ of mandamus in DOJ consent decree)

• Taylor v. HD & Assocs., L.L.C., United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 2022; 45 F.4th 833 (re: bona fide commission exemption from FLSA overtime requirements)

• Lemoine Co., LLC v. Ernest N. Morial Exhibition Hall Auth., 2022-0217 (La. App. 4 Cir. 04/12/23); 369 So. 3d 39, 41 (re: construction management at risk (CMAR) bid law challenge)

• Fraino v. Malachi S. Hull & Define Your Image, LLC, Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit, 2023, 2023 La. App. LEXIS 133 (re: breach of oral contract)

• NuMSP, LLC v. St. Etienne, US District Court Cases United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2020, 462 F. Supp. 3d 330 (re: arbitration provisions of non-compete agreement)

• W&T Offshore, L.L.C. v. Tex. Brine Corp., Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit, 2018; 250 So. 3d 97 (re: pipeline servitude rights)

• Vieux Carre Comm’n Found. v. City of New Orleans, 2017-CA-0527 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1/31/2018) 2018 La. App. LEXIS 171 (re: VCC building permit approval process)

• GE v. West Feliciana Parish Hosp. Serv. Dist. No. 1, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 164214 (E.D. La. 11/29/2016) (re: public bid law)

• ETI, Inc. v. Buck Steel, Inc., 2016-CA-0602, 211 So. 3d 439, 441 (La. App. 4 Cir. 2/1/2017) (re: construction defects)

• Bartholomew-Woods v. Wilson, 2016-1163 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/04/16) 2016 La. App. LEXIS 2494, 204 So. 3d 639 (re: election challenge)

• Palmer Ventures LLC v. Deutsche Bank AG, 254 F. App’x 426, 427 (5th Cir. 2007) (re: professional accounting defense)

• Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co., Inc. v. Sanofi-Aventis, et al., Docket No. 07-7343, U.S.D.C. S.D.N.Y. (re: Arava antitrust litigation)

• In re Stericycle, Inc., Steri-Safe Contract Litig., 7th Circuit – US District Court Cases United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division Mar 08, 2018 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 226639

• Lamorak Ins. Co. v. Huntington Ingalls, Inc., 5th Circuit – US District Court Cases United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Oct 03, 2016 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136829

Jonathon D. Lewis is an associate attorney in the New Orleans office of Davillier Law Group. He is a 2012 graduate of Loyola University with a Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice, and a 2016 graduate of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law with a focus in Civil Law Division, Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Technology. His practice focuses primarily on general commercial litigation and, more specifically, in products liability, toxic torts, construction, intellectual property/trademark infringement and insurance defense related matters.

Mr. Lewis’ legal experience further involves immediate response, assessment and defense of catastrophic incidents and natural disasters. In addition to his litigation practice, he has also represented numerous clients in the entertainment business in contractual negotiations and in the areas of trademark, copyright and other general entertainment law practice concerns. Mr. Lewis has handled and resolved matters for individual performers, record labels and their representatives.

While in law school, Jonathan was an active member of the Student Bar Association, Black Law Student Association, Sports & Entertainment Law Society and Student Ambassadors. He also was an active member of the Loyola Moot Court Program and served as an Oralist for the Civil Rights & Liberties moot court team.

Mr. Lewis is active in the New Orleans community and passionate about charity work. He is also an active member of his local church and other community service organizations. Jonathan is a youth mentor with the Son of A Saint organization, committee chair and member of the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, active member of the New Orleans Bar Association, and a member of the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans.

Mr. Lewis is licensed and admitted to practice in all Louisiana State and Federal courts.

Collin J. Ligori is an associate attorney in the New Orleans office of Davillier Law Group. He is a 2015 graduate of Brother Martin High School where he was a member of Student Council and elected Senior Class President. In 2019, he graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, and a Minor in Communications with a concentration in Professional Sales.

During his time at LSU, Mr. Ligori was a member of the Dean’s List, the LSU Professional Sales Institute’s Sales Team, and the Sigma Nu Fraternity. During his summer and winter breaks, Collin interned with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP and Crescent Drilling & Production, Inc. as a legal intern.

After graduating from LSU in 2019, Mr. Ligori attended law school at Southern University Law Center (SULC). As a member of the SULC Criminal Clinic, Mr. Ligori was tasked with managing a multitude of cases for the public defender’s office. Weekly, Collin would attend criminal court at the 19th Judicial District Court of East Baton Rouge Parish to advocate for his clients. In May of 2023, Mr. Ligori graduated from SULC, then went on to pass the Louisiana Bar in October of that year.

Mr. Ligori has since begun his professional career as an Associate Attorney for the Davillier Law Group. He is currently an active member of the Louisiana Bar Association. As a lifelong New Orleanian, Mr. Ligori seeks to serve the community that has so graciously served him.

Mr. Ligori is licensed and admitted to practice in all Louisiana State and Federal courts.

Veronica Lucero is a senior associate in Davillier’s Phoenix office. An experienced litigator, she has practiced at both the trial court and appellate levels. Veronica received her law degree from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU, where she was a member of the law review and Federalist Society. Upon graduation, Veronica joined the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, where she enjoyed success on high-profile constitutional matters, including Schires v. Carlat, the first case she developed and litigated as lead attorney and for which she drafted the successful petition for review. She then left the Goldwater Institute to pursue a mid-career clerkship at the Arizona Supreme Court before joining Davillier.

Arno T. Naeckel is an associate attorney in the Phoenix office of Davillier Law Group. He is a 1982 graduate of Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, a 1990 graduate of Indiana University Business School with an MBA, and a graduate of Georgia State University College of Law with a focus on intellectual property. Prior to joining Davillier, Mr. Naeckel had his own legal practice.

Mr. Naeckel is a Patent Attorney and has practiced before the United States Patent and Trademark Office for 17 years, representing large Fortune 500 aerospace, automobile, and communications companies as well as small businesses and individual investors. Mr. Naeckel is also a trademark attorney and represents a number of clients in the United States and Canada. Over the last 10 years, Mr. Naeckel has also developed a political practice, representing the largest legislative district in Arizona and the Maricopa County Republican Party.

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Naeckel spent 10 years on Wall Street as a securities analyst for large insurance companies such as TIAA-CREF and ING, specializing in complex asset backed securities and structured transactions. Mr. Naeckel is a Navy veteran with 20 years and has retired as a Commander (O-5). He is licensed and admitted to practice in all Georgia and Arizona courts, state and federal.

Richard H. Seamon serves as Special Counsel to Davillier Law Group, LLC, and is also a fulltime professor at the College of Law, University of Idaho. As a distinguished practitioner, Mr. Seamon has over 30 years’ experience litigating matters in federal courts and federal agencies, including matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has presented oral argument several times. Professor Seamon has published law review articles and also co-authored a book on practice before the U.S. Supreme Court: The Supreme Court Sourcebook (Aspen Pub. 2013) (with A. Siegel, J. Thai & K. Watts). He teaches both administrative law and constitutional law courses, and has previously taught civil procedure, criminal procedure, federal courts, and U.S. Supreme Court practice.

Mr. Seamon earned a B.A. and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He received his J.D. from Duke Law School in 1986, graduating as a member of the Order of the Coif. Mr. Seamon served as a federal law clerk to Kenneth W. Starr, then a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Following his clerkship, Mr. Seamon was an associate with the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., before becoming an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice. In his first two years in that position, he served under then-Solicitor General Starr and then-Principal Deputy Solicitor General John G. Roberts, Jr. (now the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court).

Mr. Seamon is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar, and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.

Allen J. Shoff is a senior associate with the Davillier Law Group in our Sandpoint, Idaho office. He practices in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, constitutional law, government law, land use and real estate. Mr. Shoff received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Idaho College of Law. During his time at the College of Law, he was an active member of the Federalist Society, serving a term as the Vice President for Advertising and Marketing, and interned at the Clearwater County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for two years. Mr. Shoff holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Hillsdale College.

After completing his legal studies, Mr. Shoff served for approximately five years as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Canyon County, Idaho, with two years as criminal prosecutor and three as a civil attorney representing the Board of County Commissioners and their departments. During his time at Canyon County he prosecuted several thousand cases and took multiple to trial, while serving as co-counsel and primary author for motion practice on several major felonies and civil litigation.

Mr. Shoff left Canyon County at the opportunity to move to the beautiful Sandpoint area, working for several months in private practice before co-founding an Idaho-based web design and hosting firm. He started with the Davillier Law Group in 2021.

Mr. Shoff is licensed and admitted to practice in the state courts of Idaho, in the United States District Court for the District of Idaho and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a member of the Idaho Mediation Association and registered as a civil case mediator through the Idaho Supreme Court.

James Sabalos was born in Newport, R.I. He attended the University of Arizona in the College of Business and Public Administration and graduated with distinction. He was the only recipient of the College’s Phi Kappa Phi academic Honors Award when he graduated in three years. He completed his Master’s degree the following year and then attended The Ohio State University to begin his coursework for a Ph. D. that next year in Public Finance.

Upon graduation from law school, he subsequently received a White House appointment to become Legal Advisor to Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission participating in hundreds of electric utility and pipeline rate and certification cases reviewed by the Chairman and Commission. He then joined the United States Justice Department working for then Assistant Attorney General William B. Reynolds in his Office’s Special Litigation Unit participating in civil and criminal litigation, nationwide. Several years later, James was appointed by the Attorney General to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston, Texas-Criminal Division where he prosecuted mail, wire and banking fraud cases including witness tampering-murder cases, money laundering, federal procurement fraud, “FCPA” cases and public corruption. James was recruited by the firm Vinson & Elkins and joined its business litigation section in Houston, also handling White-Collar cases for the firm in Houston, Dallas and its other offices. He later joined two other firms, before starting his own law firm with offices in California, Nevada and Texas.

He served for years as an Adjunct Law Professor for the University of Houston Law School and at Rice University’s Graduate Business School. He has taught many courses including energy law, white collar crime, evidence, business organizations and management for executives. He has lectured at numerous courses for lawyers and written articles on various civil and criminal litigation topics. He also received the highest award given to a Texas Lawyer by the College of the State Bar early in his career.

His practice encompasses litigation and has tried cases for clients or law firms on behalf of their clients in more than 22 states involving business litigation, torts, anti-trust, securities litigation among other claims. James is a member of the State Bars of Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, the District of Columbia and many U.S. District and Appellate Courts nationwide. He is married to his wife he met while attending law school who is, herself, an accomplished securities attorney. They have one son, Gibson Maxamillian Sabalos, who is a pre-med student at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts majoring in Chemistry. James joined the firm in early 2023 and is co-manager of the Phoenix Office.

Albert A. Thibodeaux has been Of Counsel to Davillier Law Group, LLC since March 2012. Mr. Thibodeaux is a seasoned trial attorney with over fifteen years of civil litigation experience before numerous state and federal courts in Louisiana. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Thibodeaux served as the Chief Deputy City Attorney for the City of New Orleans from August 2002 to July 2010. As Chief Deputy City Attorney, Mr. Thibodeaux supervised the General Litigation Division and served as lead trial attorney on several high profile cases, including the City’s Hurricane Katrina insurance litigation. Prior to his appointment as Chief Deputy City Attorney, Mr. Thibodeaux served as a Staff Attorney for the Housing Authority of New Orleans from April 2001 to July 2002, and as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of New Orleans assigned to the Federal/Police Litigation Division from April 1997 to April 2001. Mr. Thibodeaux left the City of New Orleans Law Department in July 2010 to start a full service law firm with a concentration in the areas of commercial litigation, insurance law, municipal law, casualty defense, personal injury law, real estate law, and successions.

Mr. Thibodeaux is a 1996 graduate of Tulane University Law School. While attending Tulane, Mr. Thibodeaux was a student attorney in the Civil Litigation Clinic. He also served as a Law Clerk in the State Farm Insurance In-House Claims Litigation Counsel Group and as a Senior Law Clerk in the City of New Orleans Law Department. Mr. Thibodeaux was also a member of the Student Bar Association and served as Vice-President of the Black Law Student’s Association.

Mr. Thibodeaux is a 1991 graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana’s Division of Education, where he received a Bachelor of Art in Social Studies Education. While attending Xavier University, Mr. Thibodeaux was selected to study at Columbia University’s Teachers’ College in the summer of 1989. Upon graduating from Xavier University, he accepted a position as an Instructor and Department Chairperson at Xavier University Preparatory High School, where he served from August 1991 to May 1993.

In addition to his full time litigation practice, Mr. Thibodeaux is a professor of Business Law at Xavier University of Louisiana in the Division of Business. He has been Magistrate Commissioner of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court since January, 2014. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, New Orleans Bar Association, New Orleans Black Chamber of Commerce and the St. Augustine High School Alumni Advisory Board.