His principal areas of practice are in corporate representation, business negotiations, joint ventures, business dispute resolution, and in environmental litigation such as on behalf of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their role in Louisiana’s coastal land loss. Prior to joining Jones Swanson, Bernie was a member for 10 years with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, LLP in Baton Rouge.

Bernie has a long and distinguished record of service in Louisiana’s government, judicial institutions, and universities. From 2000 to 2004, he was Executive Counsel to Governor Murphy J. Foster, Jr., during which time he mediated disputes between the State of Louisiana and business entities such as Harrah’s, Inc., the New Orleans Saints, BP/Amoco, The National Football League, and three Louisiana Native American tribes with respect to gaming contracts. Bernie also successfully mediated to conclusion, within nine months of the mediation’s initiation, the federal litigation regarding desegregation of the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System, which case had languished on the docket for forty-seven (47) years.

Prior to his service as Executive Counsel to the Governor, he was District Attorney for the 16th Judicial District of Louisiana, Parishes of Iberia, St. Martin, and St. Mary, a district population of approximately 175,000. He was also President of the Louisiana District Attorneys’ Association from 1985 to 1986. Additionally, he served on the Louisiana State Law Institute, which organization was mandated to confect an evidence code. Bernie worked closely with the professors who taught evidence at Louisiana State University including Professor George Pugh, Tulane’s Robert Force, and from Loyola University, Professor Gerald Rault, all of whom together wrote the first Louisiana Code of Evidence.

Bernie served on the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors for eight years and as its Chairman from 2005 to 2006. He was an adjunct professor of law at the LSU Law School from 2004 to 2011, and adjunct professor of Law at Ohio University from 1962 to1963. He has served as a member of the Louisiana Judicial College.

Bernie has served on the Louisiana Supreme Court Committees of Cameras in the Courtroom, Appellate Court Delay, and Post-Conviction Relief.

He formerly served on the Board of Directors of First National Bank in St. Mary Parish, and on the Advisory Board of Whitney National Bank. He is currently General Counsel for St. Mary Sugar Cooperative, Inc. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of AVOCA, Inc., a large land holding company in St. Mary Parish.

Bernie served as a Captain in the US Air Force, Judge Advocate General’s Department, 2nd Air Force, Strategic Air Company (1961 – 1964.).