2004 Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy Award

Allen Lewis Smith, Jr.

The award was presented to Allen Lewis Smith, Jr. during the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Annual Brunch held Friday, June 11, 2004, in conjunction with the 63rd Annual Meeting at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Sandestin, Florida.

Smith received the award for his long-standing devotion to excellence in trial practice and for upholding the standards of ethics and consideration for the courts, litigants, and all counsel in his practice of the law.

Allen Lewis Smith, Jr. was born in Woodville, Mississippi, May 9, l936. He was raised in Baton Rouge and received his undergraduate degree in Petroleum Engineering from LSU in January, l959. He returned to LSU for Law School and graduated with his Juris Doctor degree in May, l964. While in Law School, he was on Law Review for two years, inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and was a member of the Order of the Coif.

His law career began in l964 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with Plauche & Plauche, now Plauche, Smith & Nieset, where he is a senior partner. He is a charter member of the LSU Law Center Fellowship Program, was President of the Southwest Louisiana Bar Association l978, President of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel in l988, and received the President’s Award from the Louisiana State Bar Association in l990 for contribution in developing “Rules of Professionalism” for the Bar. He was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in l982. In addition to maintaining a defense practice, Mr. Smith is a life member of the American Bar Foundation and he currently serves as General Counsel for the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury.

At the brunch, Smith received a plaque signifying the honor bestowed to him. In addition, the Curtis R. Boisfontaine Trial Advocacy award carries a $1,000 cash stipend, which the LBF donated to the Southwest Louisiana Bar Association’s inaugural Bench-Bar Conference in Smith's name.