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Distinguished Jurist, Attorney and Professor Awards Program
2004
Recognition is given to those individuals who, by reason of his or her professional activities, have distinguished themselves in their chosen profession and have brought credit and honor to the legal profession.
The 2004 Distinguished Jurist, Nancy Amato Konrad
 The Honorable Nancy Amato Konrad is the senior judge of Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court, Section "C". A graduate of Ursuline Academy, Loyola University New Orleans, and Loyola University School of Law, Judge Konrad began her private practice of law in 1965. In 1980 she was elected Juvenile Court Judge in Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court, Section "C". She has the distinction of being the first female Judge in the history of Jefferson Parish.
She is the 1993 recipient of the Loyola University Adjutor Hominum Award, 1999 Judge Richard Ware Award, the 1999 FINS Award, the 1999 Champion for Children’s Award, the 2000 Public Elected Official of the Year awarded by the Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and the 2003 Judge of the Year Award by the Louisiana CASA.
Judge Konrad is currently involved in many community organizations including, Member of Ursuline Academy Board of Directors; Member of the Loyola University School of Law Visiting Committee; Member of United Way Women’s Leadership Initiative Governing Board; Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA); Jefferson Parish Bar Association; Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity; National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; Member & Treasurer Louisiana Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (President 1988-89); American Judges Association; National Association of Women Judges; Louisiana Law Institute Children’s Code Revision Committee; and Louisiana Association of Elected Women. In addition, she is a former member and board member of numerous other organizations in her community.
Judge Konrad is also recognized for her special and continuing contributions to the Louisiana Juvenile Justice System. In 1984, she was one of two Louisiana Court judges selected by the Louisiana Supreme Court to pilot a Program for Citizen Review of Foster Care. In 1985, she served as the Chairperson of the Juvenile Judges’ Benchbook Project whose ambitious undertaking organized and published all existing substantive and procedural juvenile law into a one-volume desk reference book for judges exercising juvenile court jurisdiction. She was the chairperson of the Children’s Code Project, a project, which compiled and rewrote all substantive and procedural laws affecting juvenile court jurisdiction. This comprehensive Code was passed into law at the 1991 regular session of the legislature. She was the Co-lead Judge of the Louisiana Task Force for Foster Care Reform, 1984. Judge Konrad served as Chairperson of the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board, in addition she served as a representative for both the Louisiana Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges and for the Louisiana Supreme Court on the Louisiana Children’s Cabinet. In 2002, Judge Konrad along with Judge Gray in Orleans Parish Juvenile Court were both selected by the Louisiana Supreme Court to pilot a Mediation Program dealing with dependency cases. This pilot program has been very successful. The project is now focusing on developing the programming and funding to implement the project in other courts throughout the state. Judge Konrad has also been very involved in working toward the full implementation of the Juvenile Justice Reform Initiative envisioned by Chief Justice Calogero in his 2001 State of the Judiciary Address to the joint session of the house and senate of the Louisiana legislature.
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The 2004 Distinguished Attorney, Louis D. Curet
 Louis D. Curet, a native of New Roads, is a graduate of LSU and of Paul M. Hebert Law Center. While at LSU, Curet served as Justice on Honor Court; Student Council; President of College of Arts & Sciences; President of Omicron Delta Kappa, National Leadership Fraternity; listed in Who’s Who among Students in American Colleges and Universities; a Distinguished Military Graduate, LSU ROTC. He served two years active duty with Judge Advocate General’s Department, United States Air Force.
Curet began his law practice in 1950. He is admitted to practice before all courts in Louisiana and US Supreme Court. He is a member of D’Amico & Curet law firm. He is a former Fellow in American College of Trust and Estate Counsel; served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association, 1972-1973; former member Board of Directors of Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation; and a former member Board of Directors of Bocage Racquet club. He is a member of the Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society; member and former Director of Baton Rouge Foundation for Historical Louisiana; member of the Board of Directors of Our Lady of the Lake Foundation; and member of the Board of Directors of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Foundation; Curet served as Co-Chair of the 2004 Capital Campaign Drive for Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center which raised over 2 million dollars. He has the distinction of being the first President of Friends of French Studies at LSU and now serves as Treasurer. He was inducted into LSU Alumni Hall of Distinction in 2002. He is a member of Sigma Chi Alumni Association; City Club of Baton Rouge; Baton Rouge Country Club; Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity; downtown Kiwanis Club; and a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. He was married to Jean Harvey Curet for 48 years, she passed away on 05/25/2000. He has one daughter, Jeanne Marie Curet James and four grand children.
The 2004 Distinguished Attorney, Julian R. Murray, Jr.
 Julian R. Murray, Jr. received his Juris Doctor degree from Tulane Law School in 1964. He is admitted to practice before all federal and state courts in Louisiana and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court and the 5th, 6th and 11th U.S. Courts of Appeals. He was an Assistant District Attorney for the Parish of Orleans from 1966 to 1968 and was supervisor of the Fraud Section. He was then appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, was promoted to Chief of the Criminal division and served for two years as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney. He also served as the Chief Prosecutor of the Organized Crime Unit in the Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office.
He is engaged in all types of litigation including white collar criminal defense work, business litigation and personal injury cases. Mr. Murray also serves as an adjunct professor of law at Tulane Law School, and for the last 22 years has been the Director of Tulane’s Trial Advocacy Program. He is the recipient of the Monte M. Lemann Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding service to the law school. Mr. Murray serves on the White Collar Crime Committee of the ABA and is past president of the N.O. Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He was also the founder and first president of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. Murray co-authored the text books "Louisiana Criminal Trial Practice" and "Louisiana Criminal Law Formulary". He was awarded fellowship in the International Society of Barristers and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, and is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and the Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Murray is a member of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, the Irish Cultural Society, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He also serves as a member of the Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society. He was on the cover of New Orleans Magazine, January 1999, which featured an article on New Orleans lawyers. In 2003 he was selected by the readers of Gambit as one of the top three attorneys in the metropolitan area.
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The 2004 Distinguished Professor, Paul R. Baier
 Paul R. Baier is the George M. Armstrong, Jr. Professor of Law, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University, and a member of the Louisiana Bar. He has taught constitutional law for over thirty years at L.S.U. Law Center and for the past seven years he has taught a course he created in L.S.U.’s Honors College, "The Constitution and American Civilization. Professor Baier is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and of Harvard Law School, where he was editor of Harvard Legal Commentary. In 1975-76, he worked inside the Supreme Court of the United States as a Judicial Fellow, where he scripted, narrated, and appears in the first film ever made inside the Court, featuring Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, Justices Tom Clark and Lewis Powell. The film aired nationally on P.B.S. and at the Court for a decade. He served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1987-1991. Professor Baier's article, "The Court and Its Critics," published in the American Bar Association Journal (vol. 78, 1992) sounded his voice on the national stage of constitutional scholars. He is the editor of the Memoirs of Justice Hugo L. Black and Elizabeth Black, published by Random House (1986), and of Lions Under the Throne: The Edward Douglass White Lectures of Chief Justices Warren E. Burger and William H. Rehnquist, published by the Louisiana Bar Foundation (1995). Professor Baier was the L.B.F.’s first Scholar-in-Residence, 1990-1992, and Editorial Chair of the Report of the Louisiana Bar Foundation Conclave on Legal Education and Professional Development (1995). He has taught courses on Constitutional Interpretation with Justice Harry A. Blackmun at Aix-en Provence, France, and Berlin, Germany, and for Tulane Law School with Justice Antonin Scalia in Siena, Italy. Professor Baier arranged a symposium, "The Bill of Rights and Judicial Balance: A Tribute to Lewis F. Powell, Jr.," which brought Justice Powell and Harvard Law School Dean Erwin N. Griswold to New Orleans to inaugurate the Bill of Rights Section of the L.S.B.A. Baier is a published playwright—"Father Chief Justice": Edward Douglass White and the Constitution, sponsored by the L.B.F.—which played most recently at Louisiana's Old State Capitol. He is the author of over thirty-five books, contributions to books, and teaching materials and over thirty-five published legal articles. He has rendered over fifteen appellate arguments in civil rights cases from the Montana Supreme Court to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States as Special Assistant Louisiana Attorney General. The Silver Anniversary Edition of Professor Baier's little book, The Pocket Constitutionalist, with a foreword by Justice John L. Weimer of the Louisiana Supreme Court, was published by Claitor's in 2003. "By the Light of Reason," Act IV of his play, will be published in the next no. of the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law.
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