James Doyle

Background

James Doyle was born on December 30, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Memphis lies on the Mississippi River in the southwestern part of Tennessee and is the state's largest city, a major river port and commercial center in the Mid-South.

His education and early professional life later unfolded in the Gulf South. He studied at a university in southeastern Mississippi before entering law school in Louisiana, a state whose legal system is distinctive for its civil law heritage alongside common law practice.

Education

Doyle received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1972. The institution was founded on March 30, 1910, as Mississippi Normal College, a teacher-training school. It later went through several names, including Mississippi Southern College, and gained university status in 1962 under its present name.

Doyle then studied law at Louisiana State University and A. and M. College in Baton Rouge, where he received a Juris Doctor in 1976. The law school was established in 1906 as the Louisiana State University Law School under the university's charter. It was later renamed in honor of Dean Paul M. Hebert, who led the school from 1937 until his death in 1977. Its curriculum reflects the training of students in both American common law and the civil law tradition that governs much of Louisiana.

Doyle was admitted to the bar in 1976, the year he completed his law degree. Admission to the bar qualified him to practice law in Louisiana, a state whose civil law heritage shaped the legal environment in which he worked.

Career

Doyle's principal professional affiliation was Voorhies & Labbé, a law firm in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he served as a partner. The firm traces its origins to a partnership formed in 1924 and focused primarily on civil litigation defense for insurance, maritime, banking, and business clients. It had offices in both North and South Louisiana and later announced its closure after 101 years of service to clients in the state.

The record also documents work at Association Circuit J. in Geneva, Illinois, where Doyle worked as a lawyer. His practice there included personal injury, workers' compensation, and municipal law. Geneva is a city in northern Illinois, in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Doyle also held the position of special counsel with Portuguese of Lake Charles, a firm in Lake Charles, a city in southwestern Louisiana. His practice areas were recorded as including arson defense, insurance defense, and maritime law, reflecting the defense-oriented litigation practice common among Louisiana firms serving insurers and businesses.

Membership

Doyle belonged to several bar associations at the state and national levels. He was a member of the Southwest Louisiana Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association, the national professional organization of lawyers in the United States, founded in 1878.

He also belonged to organizations devoted to particular kinds of litigation and regional legal practice. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America is a national organization of attorneys who represent people in personal injury and other civil cases. The Maritime Law Association of the United States brings together practitioners in admiralty and maritime law, while the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel serves lawyers who defend clients in civil litigation. The Asia-Pacific Lawyers Association connects lawyers across the Asia-Pacific region.

• Southwest Louisiana Bar Association , United States

• Louisiana State Bar Association , United States

• Member, Trial Practice Committee

  American Bar Association , United States

• Association of Trial Lawyers of America , United States

• Maritime Law Association of the United States , United States

• Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel , United States

• Asia-Pacific Lawyers Association