D'Ann Penner

D’Ann “Dee” Penner represents small businesses, state agencies safeguarding Louisiana's wildlife management areas, landowners, crawfishermen, shrimpers, workers, the elderly, mothers, fathers, and young children throughout Louisiana in various civil litigation matters. One aspect of Dee's portfolio is the loss-of-wetlands cases she is working as a Special Attorney General on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). These cases aim to require the pipeline companies that have breached their contracts with the Department to honor their word and restore the wetlands they have destroyed in various wildlife management areas and refuges. She also is a member of a team representing plaintiffs in class actions against pipeline companies that have damaged the wetlands and other companies that have left their abandoned pipelines in the wetlands protecting our way of life. Closer to home, Tony Clayton, retired judge Gene Thibodeaux, and Dee are fighting for justice for local crawfishermen whose businesses were damaged by a 500,000-gallon brine blowout and subsequent misrepresentations by employees of the pipeline company who caused the blowout. Once the company was presented with concrete evidence of the crawfishermen's losses, the company then set out to put their retail businesses out of business by spreading false rumors and orchestrating a campaign of coercion with their customers.

Along her path to a distinguished legal career, Dee traversed through rewarding careers as a history professor and a narrator of present-day history in the making. Today, she pursues justice for the LDWF, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC), landowners, business owners, injury victims, and other clients, often up against formidable forces from corporate and government entities. 

From a country upbringing in the Midwest to the halls of major state universities and stints as a researcher in the backwaters of Russia in the early days of the breakup of the Soviet Union, Dee quenched her thirst for knowledge with a drive to win in every undertaking. As a scholar, traveler, and teacher focusing on Russian history, language, and culture, Dee keenly appreciated people's deep connections to land and community. As a historian, she developed a talent for uncovering facts and storytelling.

Later, back in the United States, Dee parsed the real-life sagas of loss, grit, and recovery experienced by survivors of Hurricane Katrina on her path to book writing. In this role, Dee nurtured a deep respect for the priorities and values of hardworking Louisianans who have not acquired the slick way of the elites of deception and coverup rather than cleaning up their own messes.

The daughter and granddaughter of small farmers, Dee is passionate about providing quality legal representation to landowners who have been wrongly deprived of their rights. She has litigated a wide variety of property-rights, breach-of-contract, and public-trust claims in state and federal courts. She has briefed appellate matters before the Louisiana Supreme court, Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Dee majored in history at California State University, Fresno, and she received a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in 1989. After obtaining a Master of Arts in history summa cum laude and a Doctor of Philosophy in history summa cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley, she became a tenured professor at The University of Memphis. She spent time as a visiting scholar at Columbia University before enrolling at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and earned her Juris Doctor in 2012. Dee also holds a Master of Laws in energy and environment from Tulane Law School and a Master of Laws in litigation management from Baylor Law School.  The co-author of two books, Dee has also written two law review articles and seven articles for the Louisiana Association of Justice's monthly magazine.

A significant portion of Dee's practice entails business torts, environmental, and energy matters. She has worked on cases involving oil and gas lease disputes, pipeline rights of way, and property contamination. Admitted to practice in Louisiana, she is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.