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Nominated by Laura Tuggle

"Co-Executive Directors Brian Lenard and Mark Moreau had a lifelong impact on the Louisiana legal services network and the people the community serves. Brian and Mark both joined the legal aid community in 1978 under a two-year VISTA program which for both of them turned into a more than 35-year public interest career with Mark retiring in the fall of 2013 and Brian retiring in May 2014. Brian and Mark successfully led us through incredible difficulties and challenges over their life’s work in legal aid including efforts to defund legal services, the merger of legal aid programs, 2005’s Hurricane Katrina which resulted in 100% of staff being displaced for a month or more and 33% not being able to return, the BP Oil Spill, eight more presidentially declared major natural disasters, and a census adjustment resulting in a 16% loss in SLLS LSC funding in 2013. Through it all, they provided visionary leadership, unwavering guidance to the team, and a spirit of resilience to help us stand strong in our mission of helping vulnerable people achieve justice and improve their lives. 

After joining legal aid the Louisiana legal aid community, Brian became an SLLS staff attorney as a generalist in 1980 while Mark joined NOLAC (later known as SLLS post-merger) in 1982 as a staff attorney in the Housing Law and later Litigation Unit. In 1982, Brian became SLLS’s executive director and Mark was promoted to NOLAC’s executive director around 1986. In 2003, SLLS and NOLAC merged with Brian and Mark becoming Co-Executive Directors in a state with one of the highest levels of poverty in the country with enormous unmet civil legal needs for vulnerable populations. In addition to navigating a myriad of challenges during their leadership, they helped improve SLLS’s impact through innovative programs. This includes helping found the first domestic violence victim service agency in Tangipahoa Parish still in operation today, launching an elder protection services project, a statewide Low-Income Taxpayer Unit, developing an internal pro bono program for the Northshore and for out of state attorneys to assist with Katrina-related cases, ensuring probate work became a new priority for SLLS to help us better respond and prepare for disasters, developing SLLS’ first medical-legal partnership, and many more efforts that paved the way for growth, removing justice barriers and establishing a foundation for the future success of SLLS.  

Brian and Mark both went above and beyond what is required as an executive director. One example of their dedication is how they gave heart to traumatized staff during the dark days immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Brian’s home was spared from serious damage. For several months, he opened his doors to  provide housing for three SLLS families including the now deputy director, her husband, and their two young children, the litigation director, and one of the managing attorneys, his wife and their new baby. Meanwhile, Mark lost his home in New Orleans and wasn’t sure where he would land. When he realized a few days post-Katrina that six SLLS staff were all in Shreveport, Louisiana, he made his way there, found housing through a local church, and helped quickly set up shop within space generously donated by the Shreveport legal aid office to establish a temporary Disaster Legal Services office."