J. Geoffrey Ormsby

J. Geoffrey Ormsby has understood the importance of a strong work ethic and how people could depend on him since his first paper route at age 9. Those early beliefs have extended throughout his distinguished education and his impressive legal career.

Geoffrey is a well-recognized litigator who has always combined his life experiences and dedication to all things he is passionate about to bringing about successes for those who rely on him to represent their most-important interests.

Geoffrey has first-chaired numerous bench and jury trials in federal and state courts, specializing in complex commercial litigation, community property litigation, personal injury defense litigation, succession litigation, maritime litigation, and environmental litigation. In arbitrations and trial settings representing closely-held and larger companies, individuals, insurance companies, and maritime-related entities, Geoffrey has secured multiple multimillion-dollar judgments for these Smith & Fawer, LLC clients while also obtaining $0 defense verdicts in Louisiana and beyond.

A native of Islington, Massachusetts, Geoffrey developed a wanderlust fostered by his father who had worked in Greenland and the Cayman Islands and guided Geoffrey since he was a boy on numerous road trips through Quebec and New Brunswick. His love of travel led him to his adopted home of New Orleans, where he immediately took to the traditions, culture, and people of this most-unique city, as well as the State of Louisiana.

On his path to New Orleans, Geoffrey also graduated cum laude from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst in 1988 after experiencing a full year at the University of Queensland, Australia. After graduation from Amherst, Geoffrey worked for the Honorable Elihu Harris, a former assemblyman for the State of California and later mayor of Oakland, California. He then went on to work with the global advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco.

Geoffrey attended Tulane University Law School in New Orleans because of its well-regarded Maritime Law program, graduating cum laude while earning a Certificate in Environmental Law and being named recipient of the Cullen R. Liskow Award for excellence in Oil & Gas Law.

Geoffrey practiced in New Orleans for three years before moving to Washington, D.C. and then returning to his beloved New Orleans to firmly re-establish his practice here as a maritime and oil and gas litigator, joining Smith & Fawer, LLC in August 2006.

Geoffrey is also a proud player, noted coach, television announcer, and genuinely dedicated advocate of the grueling sport of rugby, having played in seven different countries and at the highest level of rugby in the United States at the age of 45. Outside of his family and legal practice, his most cherished accomplishments are coaching two teams to second- and third-place nationally at the highest level of rugby in the United States, as well as assisting the Tulane Women’s Rugby Team in winning two national championships. It is this sort of dedication, tenaciousness and preparedness that Geoffrey brings to his work for clients at Smith & Fawer, LLC.