About Us
In 2003, after being dissatisfied with the quality of legal care for victims of car accidents, Roderick ‘Rico’ Alvendia sought to establish a new firm focused on providing high-quality legal services to aid injured victims and their families. J. Bart Kelly, sharing Rico’s passion for upholding justice, joined the firm later that year, and established a partnership. In 2004, Rico was called into military service for his country in Iraq, and with the assistance of J. Bart Kelly, recruited Jeanne Demarest to the firm after witnessing her commitment to high ethical standards and tenacity in the courtroom.
Rico served honorably for 18 months in Baghdad as a JAG officer and was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel. He gained invaluable experience working both inside and out of Iraqi courts. Upon his return, only two weeks after Katrina struck, Rico, J. Bart, and Jeanne formed AKD Law, or Alvendia, Kelly, and Demarest, Attorneys at Law.
Roderick Alvendia & Jeanne Demarest & J. Bart Kelly, III
In 2005, one of the worst natural catastrophes to impact the United States, Hurricane Katrina, devastated the New Orleans area. Although AKD’s newly-formed office was not immune to the to the devastation, we began representing thousands of homeowners and local businesses against their own insurance companies, who were not fairly reimbursing their clientele for damages sustained in Katrina. AKD successfully recovered millions of dollars in trials and in settlements for their clients, helping New Orleanians to rebuild their lives.
In the last decade, AKD, Attorneys at Law, has succeeded in recovering tens of millions of dollars for our clients in landmark individual and class action cases, by committing ourselves to a steadfast protection of the rights and interests of our clients.
At AKD, we are proud of our commitment to investigating every small detail for maximum case compensation, and we do not hesitate to take on tough, complicated individual cases against large national corporations.
We believe our success stems from providing personalized, compassionate service to our clients, while aggressively pursuing just compensation for their damages.