Overview
Lynda Albano Tafaro is a native New Orleanian who obtained her Bachelor of Science and Juris Doctor degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans. Lynda’s broad-based litigation practice includes general liability and insurance defense, coverage, premises liability, municipal liability, construction, and automobile and trucking liability. She also has extensive appellate practice experience and has successfully argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal. She served as appellate counsel for a large nationwide big-box retailer, focused on premises liability issues governed by the Louisiana merchant liability statute codified in Louisiana Revised Statute § 9:2800.6. Lynda is admitted to practice in all Louisiana state and federal courts.
Lynda served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable A.J. McNamara, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Honorable Harry T. Lemmon, former Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. She began her private practice with a Louisiana-based civil defense firm where she gained extensive experience evaluating insurance coverage issues and advising clients facing third-party and bad faith claims.
Before attending law school, Lynda worked in the information systems department of Pan American Life Insurance Company as a computer programmer for the major medical benefits processing system. Lynda is married and has three children.
Experience
Insurance
- Represents insurance carriers in multi-million-dollar coverage disputes and defends a wide array of liability claims.
Construction
- Defends contractors in construction defect litigation and carriers in coverage disputes.
Transportation
- Defends individuals, truck owners/operators and businesses in tucking and car accident litigation. She successfully defended an individual and his insurance carrier through trial, which verdict was reversed by the Court of Appeal and reinstated after full briefing and argument before the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Complex Tort and Casualty
- Represents several nationwide retailers in premises liability matters through all phases of litigation and has obtained dismissal through summary judgment before the district courts, appellate courts and on supervisory writ to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Public Entity Defense
- Successfully defends municipalities in general liability and property disputes and has obtained summary judgment dismissal from the Louisiana Supreme Court pursuant to the municipal immunity statutes. Lynda also defends carriers in coverage disputes involving municipal liability. Most recently, she obtained summary judgment on coverage in favor of a municipal insurer in multiple lawsuits filed as proposed class actions.
Medical Malpractice and Healthcare Law
- Defends physicians and other health care providers within the State of Louisiana public health care system in medical malpractice claims through all stages of litigation beginning with the medical review panel through appeal.
Credentials
Clerkships
- Judicial law clerk for the Honorable A.J. McNamara, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and the Honorable Harry T. Lemmon, former Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court
Education
- Loyola University New Orleans School of Law (J.D., 1998, magna cum laude, academic scholarship recipient, articles editor and member of the Loyola Law Review, member of moot court staff)
- Loyola University, New Orleans (B.S., 1989, recipient of the Outstanding Mathematics Major Award)
Licensed to Practice in
- Louisiana
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Louisiana
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit