About-old

Our History

Established in New Orleans by Martin Regan in 1980, Regan Law PLC is a full service law firm dedicated to providing clients with competent representation. Using a revolutionary team approach, we handle cases throughout the tri state area. We have extensive trial experience in many State Courts, United States Federal Courts as well as many International Courts. Our areas of practice include Criminal Defense, Appeals and Personal Injury.

Our Founding Partner, now deceased, was an amazing lawyer with a career that spanned more then 40 years. A native Louisianian, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Political Science at the University of Southwest Louisiana in 1973. He earned his law degree at Louisiana State University and was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1975.

Mr. Regan began active duty as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) Captain in the United States Air Force in November 1975, serving as Area Defense Counsel for military forces in the United Kingdom, which led him to try cases in England, Spain, Germany, and Turkey. He also served as a military Administrative Law Judge, prosecutor, and senior defense counsel. In addition to his respected legal work with the military during this time, he spent his evenings teaching business and criminal law for the City College of Chicago and the University of Hartford at extension campuses in the United Kingdom. Upon honorable separation from service in the U.S. Air Force in 1980, Mr. Regan returned to the United States, opening his criminal defense practice in New Orleans.

Mr. Regan earned a reputation for being an experienced litigator, with victories extending well beyond Louisiana to state and federal courts to Mississippi, Texas, Colorado, and California. He was a member in good standing in the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal, the United States Court of Military Appeals, the United Claims Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

A skilled negotiator, Mr. Regan obtained post-conviction relief for clients based on illegal sentences, defective constitutional waivers, and reversals of convictions on appeal. He appealed and won a groundbreaking case in the United States Supreme Court (Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71) in 1992. Soon after in 1994, he represented Curtis Lee Kyles, establishing a defense that eventually led to the Supreme Court’s reversal of Kyles conviction and established a national standard for pre-trial discovery in criminal cases (Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419).

Mr. Regan was selected for inclusion into Trademark’s 2013 – 2014 “Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals” Honors Edition for his accomplishments in the legal profession. He volunteered his services as an educator and speaker, appearing as a panel speaker discussing trial tactics and post-conviction remedies and teaching at Loyola University School of Law. Year after year, Martin E. Regan Jr. dedicated tireless efforts on behalf of the accused, producing wins for clients in situations that less determined advocates would have considered hopeless.

Not only will he be remembered for his courtroom victories and his tenacity in fighting on behalf of his clients, he trained and helped begin the careers of scores of criminal defense lawyers in Louisiana and other states. His firm was the training ground by which many lawyers learned their craft under his tutorship, with him instilling in them his love of the law, his willingness to fight for his clients, and his empathy for those caught up in the criminal justice system. His work ethic on behalf of his clients was an example that continued to inspire other lawyers until his final day. We continue to draw inspiration from his example and strive to take care of our clients just as he would have.