Michael S. Walsh is a partner in the Baton Rouge law firm of Lee & Walsh. He was selected to receive a Crystal Gavel Award due to his noteworthy efforts in aiding the administration of justice and assisting groups and individuals on a volunteer basis through charity work and board memberships.

Mr. Walsh has taken extended mission trips to Honduras on several occasions and to the Appalachian Mountains to perform charity work in the form of constructing houses and installing sewer facilities. He is a past chairman of the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge Youth Protection Committee and currently serves on the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and the Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center. Mr. Walsh is a member of the Executive Board of the Istrouma Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and he has chaperoned numerous Boy Scout trips involving strenuous physical outings with a total lack of modern comforts. He is also the past chairman of the Capital Area Family Violence Intervention Center, Inc., having served in that capacity during the acquisition of the resent Battered Women’s Shelter.

Mr. Walsh was a long-standing volunteer in the Louisiana attorney disciplinary system, initially on the Hearing Committee level. He served for six years on the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board after being appointed by Chief Justice Catherine D. Kimball, and was eventually chairman of the Board. Mr. Walsh is the 2012 chair of the LSBA Criminal Law Section and a past president of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is also a past president of the Baton Rouge Bar of Criminal Justice and a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. Walsh will serve as the 2012-13 President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association and the Baton Rouge Bar Foundation.

“[Mr. Walsh] is always available and willing to assist an attorney who calls him and needs service or assistance,” said attorney Jamie Elizabeth Fontenot, who nominated Mr. Walsh for the award. “In my opinion, Mike Walsh epitomizes what the recipient of this award should possess. I am always amazed at both the quantity and quality of public service he performs.”

Mr. Walsh earned his law degree from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center.