News Release

Baton Rouge, LA, Attorney Benjamin R. LaBranche Elected to National Criminal Defense Bar Assn. Board of Directors

Washington, DC (August 14, 2015) – Baton Rouge, LA, attorney Benjamin R. LaBranche was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's 58th annual meeting in Denver, CO, on July 26. He previously served on the Board of Directors from 2012-15, and he is the former chair of the Indigent Defense Committee. He also a member of the Membership Committee and the Fourth Amendment Committee.

Ben served five years as a public defender in Baton Rouge and now has his own firm, Benjamin R. LaBranche, L.L.C. He is also a member of the Federal CJA panel for the Middle District of Louisiana. Ben has represented clients charged with murder, felony and misdemeanor DWI, Vehicular Homicide, Armed Robbery, all types of drug violations, crimes of violence, sex crimes, theft, embezzlement, and white collar crimes. He is fluent in Spanish and has many clients from Central and South America.

He is active in many professional organizations for criminal lawyers: locally, statewide, and nationally. He has been the president of the Baton Rouge Bar of Criminal Justice since 2009, and sits on the board of directors for the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which honored him in 2011 with its "President's Award" for his service to the organization. In 2008, he attended the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. Ben has also been a guest lecturer at the Louisiana State University (LSU) and Southern University Law Centers in the areas of Criminal Law and Indigent Defense.

Ben is a graduate from LSU where he obtained a degree in Business Management. He then received his Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center in 2004.

Contacts

Ezra Dunkle-Polier, NACDL Public Affairs & Communications Assistant, (202) 465-7656 or edunkle-polier@nacdl.org for more information.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.