Matthew S. Chester and David A. Rueff Jr. have been elected to Baker Donelson's board of directors by the Firm's shareholders.
Mr. Chester, a shareholder in the Firm's New Orleans office and chair of the Government Enforcement and Investigations Group, has more than 20 years of experience practicing law in the private sector and at the Department of Justice. At Baker Donelson, his experience includes representing individuals and corporate entities in matters involving criminal allegations of public corruption; fraud; health care, export control, environmental, and immigration violations; and espionage. He also has a diverse civil litigation practice, representing individuals and corporations in a myriad of commercial litigation disputes.
Before joining Baker Donelson, Mr. Chester worked at the Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was a member of the Financial Fraud and Public Integrity units in the U.S. Attorney's office and was promoted to the position of Deputy Supervisor of the Public Integrity group. During his service as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chester received multiple honors, most notably the Department of Justice's Award for Superior Performance in Litigation for his work in connection with a high-profile public corruption prosecution in New Orleans. He is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® in Criminal Defense: White-Collar and by Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers as a leading Litigation: General Commercial lawyer in Louisiana.
Mr. Rueff, a shareholder in Baker Donelson's Jackson office, is the Firm's Chief Client Solutions Group Officer and oversees an innovation team that includes responsibilities for knowledge management, legal project management, matter budgeting, pricing, process improvement, machine learning/AI applications, and legal research. In 2011, he helped to create and staff one of the first law firm Legal Project Management Offices. As the Firm's Legal Project Management Officer, he was responsible for implementation of pricing, legal project management, process improvement, and supporting technologies. He was also responsible for the development of the Firm's proprietary legal project management model, BakerManage®; the Firm's Lean model, BakerLeanTM; and the Firm's proprietary budgeting tool, Budget Designer.
As a practicing lawyer for more than 25 years, Mr. Rueff's experience has included both litigation and transactional matters, as well as a focus on the distribution of federal grants to victims of hurricane and flood disasters. He has supported projects and managed project teams in Mississippi, New York, Texas, New Jersey, and Louisiana. Mr. Rueff is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® in Real Estate Law. He is PMP® certified through the Project Management Institute, certified in the Toyota Manufacturing Production System (Lean), and a member of the Professional Pricing Society.
Baker Donelson Chair and CEO Timothy M. Lupinacci said, "Matt has shown throughout his legal career a tremendous talent as a problem solver with a keen sense of perspective, and David has been the driving force behind Baker Donelson's ability to develop and deliver innovative client-focused solutions. I'm extremely grateful for the skills and experience they both bring as new members of our board. Their leadership and counsel will add meaningfully to the work we are doing to ensure Baker Donelson achieves the objectives in our BakerVision2028 strategic plan."