Victoria White Baudier is a partner in the Transactions and Corporate Advisory Services Practice Group in the New Orleans office of Adams and Reese LLP. Her experience includes general business counseling, commercial litigation, bankruptcy transactions and litigation, asset acquisitions, franchise transactions and litigation, intellectual property (IP) litigation, commercial financial transactions, and both real estate and asset foreclosures.

She holds a law degree from New Orleans’ Loyola University College of Law, summa cum laude. At Loyola, she was named a William E. Crow scholar and served as a member of the Loyola Law Review and the Moot Court staff, and also competed in the National Moot Court Competition. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with honors from the University of New Orleans and serves on the board of the school’s International Alumni Association. Active in a number of charitable and civic organizations, she also participates on the boards of the Louisiana Chapter of IWIRC and a young attorneys’ association. At the firm, she serves as a committee chair for the Women’s Initiative Team, which promotes women’s development and awareness of women’s issues.

Q How did you gravitate into turnaround/restructuring work?

VICTORIA There was this opportunity at Adams and Reese when I was moving back from California, where I’d been living for a few years and practicing law. I wanted to come back to Adams and Reese because I had done a summer clerkship here, so I talked to a few people and this position in the Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group was available. I pretty much took it because it was such a great firm. I knew people here, and I just really enjoyed working here when I had spent time here before.

I did have other options, but I did want to do something more challenging, a practice that would keep me on my toes. So I chose this, and I’m very happy with my decision.

Q How long have you been working there now?

VICTORIA I started with Adams and Reese in the Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group in 2010, so a long time for me.

Q So you started at kind of a difficult time in the field.

VICTORIA This is true. One thing that I did was to get involved in as much bankruptcy and reorganization work and restructuring work as I could, but I also diversified my practice too, because we didn’t know what was going to happen at that point. I did some litigation, some IP work, and a bunch of transactional work, which I think was a good move, to develop different skills so I could roll with the times, as they say.

Q Who inspires you professionally or personally? Have you had any mentors along the way?

VICTORIA I feel very inspired by the female attorneys that I’ve worked with throughout my career. One person would be Alexis Coll-Very at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett in Palo Alto, California. She’s just an amazing woman. She has kids and a family, and she’s still a partner at one of the top law firms in the country. I was really sad to leave there because I loved working with her, and I still keep in touch with her. She’s very inspirational to me.

There are some really great women attorneys here at Adams and Reese. Lisa Hedrick and Janis van Meerveld have been very inspirational to me. They have families and vibrant careers and good attitudes while doing it all. I would say those three women have really inspired me and kept me rolling with the punches through my career.

Q If you could start your career over, would you do anything differently?

VICTORIA Hindsight is always 20/20, but I don’t think so. I grew up in New Orleans. I went to law school here. I was kind of torn about moving away and coming back. I don’t regret for a minute moving away and having that experience and then coming back here. I think I made the best decision with the law firm where I am. I’m really happy.

Q What took you to California? Was it the job, or did you have other ties to the state?

VICTORIA No, not really. Just the job. I wanted to get away for a little while and experience a little different kind of life and a different career path. I moved to Palo Alto in 2007, and I was there until I moved back here in January 2010.

Q What have been some of your favorite, most gratifying, or important engagements along the way?

VICTORIA The most gratifying projects I’ve worked on are those in which you have a relationship with the client, and they’re a person who is really invested in what is going on. You can talk to them and they have emotions about it. I feel that I’ve really championed for them. I’ve really won it for them personally, and it means a lot to them.

Most recently, I’ve been working for a client on a [U.S. Bankruptcy Code] Section 303(i) motion for damages and attorneys’ fees in relation to the improper filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition. It’s been very gratifying to work with him and speak to him and to get all of these victories for him personally. I also worked on another bankruptcy that was in Alabama. It was a Chapter 11 individual bankruptcy that I worked on for a few years. We had some aggressive dealings in an adversary proceeding with the government. Sometimes it just got very stressful, but it was really rewarding to work with him and prevail in that case for him.

Q What role has your TMA membership played in your career?

VICTORIA I think I was at another conference, and someone at that conference told me and another attorney from my firm that we should join TMA, so we did. I didn’t really get involved until I’d been practicing in this field for a while. It’s really increased my network and given me a lot more opportunities to network on a national level. So much of the restructuring field is about clients who are not necessarily located where I am. A lot of my clients—I’d say most of my clients—are not located in New Orleans, so I’ve got referral work. I’ve served for local counsel in a number of representations that have been referrals from other TMA members, so it’s really helped in networking and creating a bigger network for me,

Q You’ve gotten involved in NextGen, too, right?

VICTORIA Yes, just recently.

Q How have you found that experience?

VICTORIA We just started the group here in Louisiana. We had our first networking reception a few weeks ago. It went great. We had such a good turnout. It is a little bit less intimidating of an environment to network in, because it’s people who are around my age who have a similar amount of experience as I do. They’re good relationships to build because while they may not be giving me work now, as we progress in our careers, we’ll have that relationship, and the need will most likely arise at some point.

Q What advice would you give to someone who’s new to the industry or thinking about getting into it?

VICTORIA Just from my own experience, if someone was telling me they wanted to get into this field, I would also tell them not to pigeonhole themselves, to diversify. Within bankruptcy and reorganization, you run the gamut of legal issues you’re going to deal with and different transactional projects that you’re going to be asked to put together.

You really have to know a lot. An adversary proceeding in a bankruptcy can involve any number of legal issues. So, every opportunity I had to do something new or different than I had done before, whether it was in the bankruptcy context or not, I did it, because that’s another skill I have under my belt. I can say, “I’ve done that before. I can handle it.” So, my advice would be to diversify your practice and take on whatever you can as a young attorney and work your tail off so that you have as many skills as possible and can step up to the plate and do anything that may be needed of you.

Q What about outside the office? What are you passionate about when you’re not at work?

VICTORIA I like to be active to work off some of the stress that my career creates in my life. I love running and being outdoors. I also love yoga. And most importantly, I love hanging out with my French bulldog LeRoi Brown.

Q How old is LeRoi Brown?

VICTORIA He’s going to be four years old in a few months.

Q Is he a New Orleans native?

VICTORIA He’s from Oklahoma. He came to New Orleans on a plane to me for my birthday a few years ago, and he was the best present I ever got. He was a surprise—he was sitting in my living room, all one pound of him. He is the cutest thing in the world.

Q What might people who only know you professionally be most surprised to learn about you?

VICTORIA I love to paint. I’ve always been a painter since I was a little child. If you come over to my house, all of the paintings are paintings I have done. I have one in my office and a few in friends’ houses. It’s something I really like to do. I do acrylics, large-scale acrylics.

Q What are your subjects?

VICTORIA I do a lot of landscapes, some nudes, and some abstract art. Lots of different stuff.

Q What items are at the top of your bucket list?

VICTORIA When I lived in California, I loved surfing, at least when I lived in Los Angeles, and I’ve always wanted to go to South Africa to go surfing. I hear that it’s very beautiful there. I’d say as far as a big grand thing, that would be number one on my bucket list, to plan that trip.

James Taylor is my favorite singer, so maybe to hear him live again. I’ve heard him three times in my life, so maybe one more time.

Q I see that you do a lot of fundraising.

VICTORIA I do. Right now, I’m working on a fundraiser called Soul Revival, which raises funds for the Legacy Donor Foundation, which raises awareness of organ, eye, and tissue donation and the need for that in our community. This year is a very special year for that because my very best friend’s father, who founded the organization, died last year after getting a transplant. So it means a lot to us to be working on that this year.

I also do work for the Good Shepherd School, which is just a few blocks from my office. It’s an amazing educational institution for underprivileged children in New Orleans. It’s so rewarding to be involved in that and see the difference that it can make in the lives of those children.

And then I work with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation in New Orleans, raising money for scholarships for Hispanic students in the greater New Orleans area.

It all gives you a lot of perspective. You can get caught up in the day to day struggles of being a lawyer, and you can see that there are people who have much greater struggles in this world than I do and need my help.

Q Is there anything you’d like to add?

VICTORIA If anyone reads the article and they’re in New Orleans and want to talk about bankruptcy and restructuring work, I’ll take them out for a hurricane. I don’t mind taking a trip down to Pat O’Brien’s every once in a while.