A towering live oak on the north side of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, just outside the Law Library, has been endowed in honor the late LSU Law alumnus Gene W. Lafitte, Sr.
Lafitte’s family endowed the oak to honor the 1952 graduate, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 89. A marker placed near the trunk of the live oak in late January even notes Lafitte was named the Law Center Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2010.
As a law student, Lafitte served as associate editor of the Louisiana Law Review and graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif. Lafitte joined Liskow & Lewis in 1956, where he founded the litigation department, and served for 20 years as the firm’s president and managing partner before being named chairman.
Established in 1993, the Endow an Oak program is managed by the LSU Foundation, and proceeds are used to care for the roughly 1,200 oak trees spread across the LSU campus. For more information about the program, contact Bobbi Zaunbrecher at 225-578-8705 or bobbiz@lsu.edu.
