ATTORNEY PROFILES
ATTORNEYS FOR DIVERS
PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF DIVERS
Delise & Hall is a New Orleans, Louisiana, based law firm with offices in New Orleans and Covington and associate attorneys nationwide. Our firm concentrates in the representation of an international clientele of commercial divers, public safety divers, technical divers and recreational divers and their families in all areas of maritime and admiralty law. For over a quarter of a century Delise & Hall has represented American and international clients from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Cadiz, and from the British Isles to the Marshall Islands in maritime matters concerning the Jones Act, products liability, personal injury and wrongful death litigation as well as treasure/salvage law. Consultations are also available in matters concerning marine insurance and vessel documentation.
Delise & Hall accepts attorney referrals from around the globe as well as provides expert testimony in diving litigation. As experienced divers as well as instructors, the attorneys and staff of Delise & Hall can assist attorneys, investigators and risk managers in the post casualty investigation prior to the commencement of litigation or a claim.
In an effort to promote diver safety, Delise & Hall sponsors diver safety seminars for dive clubs, dive shops or other interested parties with the goal of avoiding diver injuries and fatalities and with the encouragement of diver safety on the job or within the public safety, recreational and technical diving communities.
BOBBY J. DELISE, ATTORNEY
Bobby J. Delise, senior and founding partner, is a native of New Orleans.
Mr. Delise’s primary area of his legal practice is the representation of an international clientele of commercial divers as well as technical, public safety and recreational divers in personal injury litigation. In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Delise has engaged in the representation of individuals and enterprises worldwide in all areas of the law.
A son of a merchant seaman Mr. Delise received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in 1979, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Tulane University School of Law in 1990 and his Bachelor of Science from Louisiana State University in 1976. Mr. Delise was admitted to the Louisiana State Bar Association in 1979 and the Texas State Bar and Colorado State Bar Associations in 1998. He has been admitted pro hac vice in numerous Federal and State Courts all throughout the United States a privilege that allows his appearance in state courts for which he does not have bar association membership.
Mr. Delise holds membership in the American Association for Justice, The Louisiana Association for Justice and The Federal Bar Association. For decades he lectured as a faculty member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society where he lectured on Diving Law and legal issues related to hyperbaric medicine. He has also lectured on Diving Law and Diver Safety at the leading commercial diving schools throughout the United States.
Since 1992 he has been a visiting skills professor at Loyola Law School of New Orleans teaching law students Negotiations, Trial Techniques, Ethics, Professionalism and Motion Practice. Mr. Delise holds the Martindale-Hubbell’s highest (AV) rating for ethics and legal skill and has been named a “Super Lawyer” in Louisiana for the last several years.
Mr. Delise is a past Chairman of the Committee on the Profession Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association, he is a sitting member of the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association and an Attorney Member of the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel. He has spoken extensively on Professionalism and Ethics within in the legal profession. In 2006 Mr. Delise earned the Louisiana State Bar Association’s President’s Award for his efforts to promote professionalism in the law as well as his contributions to the Bar and the public following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Mr. Delise can be contacted bdelise@divelawyer.com
ALTON J. HALL, JR., ATTORNEY
Alton J. Hall, Jr. is a native of Natchez, Mississippi who resides on a small farm in Covington, Louisiana and oversees the firm’s Covington office.
Mr. Hall earned his Bachelor of Science from Mississippi State University where he was a President’s Scholar majoring in Agricultural Economics. He earned a Juris Doctor from Tulane University School of Law including study at Cambridge England, graduating magna cum laude, was a member of the Order of the Coif, Moot Court, National Trial Team, and was the recipient of the Dean’s Honor Medal and American Jurisprudence awards of excellence in admiralty, trial advocacy and federal procedure.
Mr. Hall’s background includes work as a dive store owner, scuba instructor, deckhand and Divemaster on dive and fishing vessels. He also spent several years on the United States Senate staff, leaving Washington, D.C. to direct a party candidate’s presidential campaign in the southern states. During law school Mr. Hall was employed by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office. Upon graduation he accepted a position as an associate at Phelps Dunbar handling admiralty and maritime litigation. Thereafter, Mr. Hall assumed a full-time faculty position with Tulane School of Law as one of two directors of Tulane’s Criminal Clinic where he taught classes in criminal advocacy and handled the in-court representation of indigent defendants. In this position Mr. Hall handled hundreds of criminal cases from arraignment through trial as well as appellate work in matters ranging in diversity from simple assault to murder. He continues to litigate major criminal cases in both state and federal courts.
Mr. Hall joined Delise & Hall in 1994. His practice focuses on admiralty and maritime matters involving recreational, public safety, technical and commercial divers. In addition, Mr. Hall is experienced with treasure/salvage law, charter party and ship collision, allision, United States Coast Guard administrative actions and personal injury litigation. Mr. Hall’s diving and general maritime related practice is nationwide and in addition to general bar memberships in Louisiana, Texas and the Mississippi federal bar he has been admitted pro hac vice nationwide at both the state and federal level. He is admitted before the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal Maritime Commission as well as numerous Federal and State Courts. Mr. Hall holds Martindale-Hubbell’s highest (AV) rating for ethics and legal skill.
Mr. Hall received his initial scuba certification in 1980 and has been a PADI open water Scuba instructor since 1984, with a Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating having provided instruction on every certification level of personal recreational diving including numerous specialties. He is a certified NACD cavern diving instructor, a cave diver through NACD, GUE, NSS-CDS, PSAI and a recipient of the Wakulla award. Mr. Hall holds additional certifications through IANTD, TDI and other related organizations and agencies. He is well versed in commercial diving and has vast and current experience with rebreather diving and operations, mixed-gas diving, deep diving, cave exploration and wreck penetration. Several of his legal cases have resulted in changes to the recreational diving standards and procedures.
Mr. Hall holds a USCG 100 Ton Masters license as well as dive medic and various first responder and first aid certifications. He is an FAA licensed pilot, multiple Ironman triathlete, mountaineer having climbed numerous peaks in excess of 14,000’ in the United States, Europe and Central America, and avid hunter worldwide. He breeds Mountain Cur dogs for search and rescue and is a beekeeper and koi aficionado. Mr. Hall is the author of numerous published diving legal manuals and continuing legal education articles as well as diving, mountain climbing and hunting adventure stories.
Mr. Hall can be reached at ahall@divelawyer.com or at our Covington office at 985-249-5915.
2023 Louisiana Super Lawyers
2022 Louisiana Super Lawyers
2021 Louisiana Super Lawyers
The American Registry’s America’s Most Honored Lawyers 2021
Top Attorneys in Louisiana 2021
America’s Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys 2021
Lawyers of Distinction 2021
2018 Elite Lawyer of the South
New Orleans Top Lawyers for Admiralty and Maritime Law.
America’s Top 100 Criminal Defense Attorneys 2022
In addition, Mr. Hall has been repeatedly peer selected and rated in Louisiana Legal Leaders Top Rated Lawyers, Top Lawyers for Admiralty and Maritime, Top Lawyers in New Orleans, Who’s Who, Super Lawyers, Top Lawyers in Louisiana, America’s Most Honored professionals – Top 1%, profiled by the National Law Journal and other local, state, national and international recognitions.
THE MARTINDALE-HUBBELL PEER REVIEW RATINGS
- AV® Preeminent™ (4.5-5.0) - An AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.
- BV® Distinguished™ (3.0-4.4) - The BV® certification mark is an excellent rating for a lawyer with some experience. A widely respected mark of achievement, it differentiates a lawyer from his or her competition.
- Rated (1.0-2.9) - The Peer Review Rated designation demonstrates that the lawyer has met the very high criteria of General Ethical Standing.
JEANNETTE M. DELISE, ATTORNEY
Jeannette M. Delise, a resident of New Orleans, received her Juris Doctor and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, and her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and her Bachelor of Arts in History from Louisiana State University. Ms. Delise was admitted to the Louisiana State Bar Association in 2018 and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 2019.
From August of 2018 to September of 2019 Ms. Delise served as the Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Jay Zainey at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. During law school, Ms. Delise held externships at the United States Attorney’s Office at United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Judge Page McClendon, Orleans Parish Civil District Court for the Honorable Robin Giarrusso, and for United States Magistrate Daniel Knowles in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Ms. Delise holds membership in the American Association of Justice, the Louisiana Association for Justice, the A.P. Tureaud Inn of Court, the St. Thomas Inn of Court, the Federal Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association, St. Thomas More Catholic Lawyers Association, and the Academy of New Orleans Trial Attorneys.
Since joining Delise and Hall in the fall of 2019 Ms. Delise’s concentration has been on federal litigation, criminal law, successions, and general litigation.
Ms. Delise can be reached at jdeliselaw@gmail.com or at our New Orleans office at (504) 836-8000.