Joyce S. Sallah is of counsel in the New Orleans office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Her practice focuses on high stakes matters with legal, political, and public relations components, such as internal investigations and audits, corporate compliance, and litigation. Ms. Sallah is recognized as a leader in the fields of compliance, city government, employment and labor, and business.

Ms. Sallah, who moved to New Orleans after earning her Juris Doctorate from City University of New York, (CUNY), Law School, has had an extremely successful legal career, first as criminal defense attorney: Ms. Sallah was an Orleans Public Defender where she first made her mark as a formidable trial attorney and zealous advocate for her clients; then as a civil litigator: Ms. Sallah worked for Louisiana’s Department of Justice (LADOJ), as an Assistant Attorney General, where she aggressively defended the State of Louisiana and state agencies in various civil matters ranging from Medical Malpractice, Workers’ Compensation, General Liability, and Road Hazards; there, she was later promoted as the Team Leader for the Workers’ Compensation team, at LADOJ’s New Orleans’ Office’s Litigation Division.

Ms. Sallah is an experienced and versatile counselor, well-known and sought out for her compliance acumen, creativity and bedside manner. She is often asked to represent government and corporate leaders who find themselves on the wrong end of a legal crisis. Ms. Sallah helps guide QPWB clients through legal crisis.

Most recently, Ms. Sallah finished her tenure with the City of Kenner, Louisiana where she served as its first African American Interim City Attorney; Ms. Sallah ran the City Attorney’s Office and was the in-house counsel to the Mayor, Kenner City Council, all City of Kenner Departments, City of Kenner’s Civil Service Board, and other City of Kenner committees, and boards immediately following the chaos caused by Hurricane Ida.

Ms. Sallah represents clients across a host of industries and often in crisis management situations. She has been retained to conduct confidential internal ethical investigations and advise agency heads relating to alleged violations and false claims, corruption, fraud, racial, gender, sexual harassment, inequality, and other misconduct claims.

Recent experience includes:

• Successfully conducted internal personnel and department-wide internal investigations and audits related to accusations from the public and employees related to potential ethical and/or criminal issues.
• Represented the State of Louisiana, City of Kenner, and other clients related to claims arising from employment, workers’ compensation, property damage, personal injury, and contract disputes and other business transaction issues.
• Conducted internal employee investigations, audits, and advised directors relating to claims of racial, gender, inequality, and other alleged misconduct by board members and senior officers.
• Successfully filed dispositive pleadings resulting in dismissal of multiple Plaintiffs’ lawsuits in various civil ligation matters in defense of state agencies, and other organizations.
• Successfully defended multiple hospitals and physicians through the medical review panel phase and beyond in several medical malpractice claims.

Ms. Sallah also assists clients in designing and enhancing corporate compliance, sexual harassment and ethics programs. She counsels clients on day-to-day compliance issues and has conducted risk assessments for state entities. Ms. Sallah helps organizations and agency directors respond to internal allegations of wrongdoing, conducts training for boards of directors, management, compliance departments and other company personnel. She also advises clients on compliance due diligence regarding corporate ventures. Ms. Sallah has acted as trial and appellate counsel in multiple courts in over 100 matters.  She is a very experienced trial lawyer who has litigated cases before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and arbitration panels. In addition, Ms. Sallah has represented clients in disputes involving wage and hour violations, employment contracts, discrimination, and other statutory claims in state and federal agencies.

She is licensed to practice law in Louisiana.

Areas of Practice

• Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations
• Insurance Litigation
• Labor and Employment
• Healthcare/Medical Malpractice
• Workers’ Compensation