D’Ann R. Penner is an associate at Larry Curtis, APLC. From her office in Lafayette, Louisiana, she represents companies and individuals throughout Louisiana in a variety of civil litigation matters. D’Ann practices in the areas of maritime personal injury and wrongful death involving offshore drilling rig accidents, supply, utility and crew boat accidents, dredge boat accidents, fishing boat accidents, construction barge accidents, commercial diving accidents, and helicopter accidents, as well as accidents involving railroad employees (FELA claims), railroad crossing accidents, and automobile and commercial truck accidents.

D’Ann also has an active property law and environmental law practice, and she assists landowners who are suing oil and gas companies that have used their properties without permission or have contaminated their properties through poor drilling practices or pipeline leaks. She also has experience in litigation against companies based on oil and gas lease disputes and against pipeline companies for the failure to honor right of way agreements to maintain the width of pipeline canals leading to the loss of wetlands and mineral rights. She has also represented small businesses in business litigation, including violation of the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Louisiana Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Dr. Penner has an appellate practice, too.

Fluent in English and Russian, D’Ann possesses several degrees. She majored in history at California State University, Fresno, graduating in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude. After receiving a Ph.D. in history summa cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1995, she was an associate professor at the University of Memphis and then a visiting scholar at Columbia University before deciding to pursue a legal education. D’Ann enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law on a scholarship and was awarded her Juris Doctor in 2012. She later earned an LL.M. in energy and environment from Tulane University Law School.

Admitted to practice in Louisiana, D’Ann is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Western and Middle Districts of Louisiana, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has been elected to Louisiana Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars in 2018 and 2019. She has had several articles on environmental law matters published in legal journals, and she is an active participant in the Judge Albert Tate American Inn of Court.