Richard R. Kennedy

Personal Experience

Richard R. Kennedy is recognized as one of Louisiana’s preeminent personal injury trial attorneys. He has recovered multi-million dollar judgments and settlements for clients during his 50-plus year legal career.

Richard is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.  Membership in the College is limited to one percent of the Bar and is an honor that is given only after a lengthy and rigorous evaluation. Lafayette has more than 1,200 attorneys and of that number only 6 attorneys are members of the College. In 1980, he became Louisiana’s first attorney to be certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in Civil Law. He is listed as in the Top 100 Trial Lawyers for 2010, 2011, and 2012 by The American Trial Lawyers Association.

He holds the highest rating-AV- given by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. Richard also is a Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in the practice areas of​Admiralty I Maritime Law, Personal Injury, Civil Trial Practice, and Appellate Practice.

Richard graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana at Lafayette (B.A. 1962 summa cum laude) and from Tulane Law School (J.D. 1965 with honors). He was a recipient of Tulane Law School’s Academic Scholarship. He was a member of the Moot Court Board and the winner of the law school’s Moot Court Competition. After graduating from law school, he was a law clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Putnam of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Richard also served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

In 1965, Richard was admitted to the Louisiana bar. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of Louisiana. He has tried cases in state and federal courts outside of Louisiana.

Organizations & Memberships