About Halima Smith

Halima has been practicing law for nearly twenty years, and her practice focuses on civil litigation, business representation, education law, family law and successions and estate planning.  After she graduated from law school, Halima served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Ethel S. Julien at Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans.  She later practiced civil litigation, toxic tort litigation and insurance defense at several New Orleans area law firms.  Halima successfully operated her own firm, The Law Office of Halima Narcisse Smith, LLC, for ten years prior to the formation of McKenna Narcisse, LLC.  Halima’s law firm settled a federal discrimination and harassment lawsuit against a Fortune 500 Company; settled a wrongful termination claim against a large regional financial company and obtained the dismissal of a federal lawsuit against a regional banking institution based on unfair trade practices.

She is a current member and a former President and Board Member of the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society.  She also served as an advisory board member of Algiers Economic Development Foundation and was a former board member of Westbank Redevelopment Corporation.  She also served as judge pro tempore at First City Court for the City of New Orleans.

Halima graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1999, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in Spanish.  She also graduated from Loyola University College of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 2002.  At Loyola, she was a member of the Loyola Trial Team and was a Student Practitioner in Loyola’s Street Law program.  Halima is also a 2010 graduate of the Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum.