Hon. Jay C. Zainey, U.S. District Judge, USDC-EDLA

Judge Zainey was appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on February 19, 2002. He is the past President of the Louisiana State Bar Association. As State Bar Association President, he created the Community Action Committee and the Committee to Provide Legal Services for the Disabled. These two committees are purportedly the first of their kind in the nation. Jay graduated from Jesuit High School, the University of New Orleans, LSU School of Law, and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Jay is co-founder of SOLACE, a Louisiana State Bar Association program, which provides services to members of the legal community and their families who experience tragedies, and who otherwise have special needs. There are currently over 25,000 volunteer attorneys throughout the state who participate in the SOLACE Program. SOLACE Programs have now been developed in 38 states and Puerto Rico.

Hon. Nannette Jolivette Brown, U.S. District Judge, USDC-EDLA

Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 2011. Judge Brown graduated from Tulane Law School in 1988 and practiced commercial and environmental litigation in New Orleans for more than two decades. She also earned an LL.M in Energy and Environment from Tulane Law School in 1998. A devoted public servant, she mediated hundreds of insurance disputes to help New Orleans rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and became Deputy Mayor and City Attorney for New Orleans in 2010, overseeing the City’s legal efforts. Since joining the Court in 2011, she has served with distinction, including a term as Chief Judge from 2018 to 2025. During that time, she pushed for significant reforms in jury selection and led the Court through COVID-19, Hurricane Ida, and the 2025 New Orleans terror attack. She has also served as a member of the federal Judicial Conference, working on issues of transparency and financial disclosure for federal judges. She is active within the ABA, the Federal Bar Association, the Federal Judges Association, and the American Law Institute, and has been honored for her work in civil rights and promoting diversity in the legal profession, especially within the judiciary. She has served on the faculties of Southern University Law Center and Loyola Law School, where she helped establish a mediation clinic aimed at providing vital legal services to underserved communities. She also has served as a Teaching Fellow at Tulane Law School and was inducted into the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame in 2025.

Hon. Janis van Meerveld, U.S. Magistrate Judge, USDC-EDLA

Chief Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld has served the Eastern District of Louisiana since 2016.  She obtained her undergraduate and law degrees from Tulane University, following which she spent 29 years in private litigation practice with Adams and Reese LLP, where she developed a specialization in labor and employment litigation.

Since joining the federal bench, Judge van Meerveld has been extremely active in serving numerous bar associations, co-founding and chairing the New Orleans Federal Bar Association’s Justice Camp program, co-editing The Advocate magazine, and coordinating legal programming.  She regularly presents on harassment, discrimination, and implicit bias, and has won numerous awards and accolades for her CLEs and diversity initiatives. In 2023, she was appointed as the Fifth Circuit representative to the Magistrate Judges Advisory Group to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Since 2024, she has served as its Chair.

Haley Jupiter, Sternberg, Naccari, and White LLC

In 2018, Haley received her Bachelor’s degree in political science from Loyola University New Orleans. A year later, she returned to Loyola to attend law school.

While in law school, Haley served on the Trial Advocacy Staff, representing Loyola in the Syracuse National Trial Competition and the Texas Young Lawyers Association Regional Competition. She also clerked at the firm, Sternberg, Naccari & White after her second year of law school.

In 2022, Loyola University’s Advocacy Center presented Haley with an award for “Best Overall Trial Advocacy Member.” Following graduation from law school, Haley began her legal career with an intense focus on domestic and family law. She rejoined Sternberg, Naccari & White as an attorney in 2023, and practices in the areas of family law, business litigation, and legal ethics.

Haley is a member of many professional legal organizations including the New Orleans Chapter of the FBA, where she serves as a member on the YLD Board of Directors. Haley is also a member of the New Orleans Bar Association, the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Society, and the A.P. Tureaud Inn of Court. Haley has served as the Political Action Committee chair of the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society since 2023. In 2024-2025, Haley completed the Loyola Institute of Politics fellowship. Haley continues to be actively involved in the legal field, teaching multiple Continuing Legal Education classes since her admission to the Louisiana Bar in 2022. 

In her personal life, Haley loves to spend time with her family, and especially enjoys being a mother to her one year old son, and her baby on the way. On the weekends, you can find Haley walking around Bayou St. John and popping into one of the nearby coffee shops, with her dog and toddler in tow. Haley enjoys Pilates, walks in the park or along the bayou, and dancing around the house to good music. When she’s not working, Haley will often be in the kitchen cooking (she makes a mean pot of gumbo!) or often escaping to Florida for some family beach time!