The Mark Moreau Public Interest Law Award recognizes lawyers who have dedicated themselves to serving the poor through public interest law in a local nonprofit legal services organization. The award recognizes public interest lawyers with keen legal minds who exhibit service, leadership, and mentorship in the highest ideals of the legal profession. The award is named the Mark Moreau Public Interest Law Award to honor Mark Moreau’s lifelong commitment to public interest law. His career was a model for all members of the bar to serve the less fortunate and the public interest. Indeed, Mark Moreau inspired scores of  law students, legal aid lawyers, and volunteer lawyers to dedicate their careers or their time to serving the public interest. The New Orleans Bar Foundation will make a $1,000 donation to the nonprofit organization where the recipient works. This year's Mark Moreau Public Interest Law Award Recipient is Laura Tuggle.

Laura Tuggle has been the Executive Director of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) since May 2014 after beginning her career at SLLS in 1993. She previously managed SLLS’ Housing Law Unit during the years immediately following Hurricane Katrina from 2005-2010. Over her public interest career, she has excelled in many areas including direct services, systemic work, and policy advocacy resulting in increased access to housing for special populations including the homeless, people living disabilities, and disaster survivors. Impact litigation filed by Laura resulted in significant legal victories for low-income tenants including millions of dollars in federal relocation assistance and establishing a private right of action for voucher assisted tenants to challenge utility allowances in federal court. She was the original author of the Federally Subsidized Housing Program portion of the Louisiana Legal Services Desk Manual and coauthor of the housing portion of the Brookings Institute New Orleans Index at 5.

Under Laura’s leadership, SLLS has grown from 85 to almost 175 staff along with a doubling of its budget with cutting edge programs such as collaborations with onsite legal services at health clinics, homeless shelters, domestic violence victim service agencies, and court-based interventions. In the wake of COVID and Hurricane Ida, innovations in service delivery to vulnerable populations hard hit by these disasters includes SLLS’ new Right to Counsel program for struggling Orleans Parish tenants at risk of eviction, an expansion of its Medical-Legal partnerships with the VA hospital and other veteran service providers (initially funded solely by NOBA/NOBF), and significant disaster legal services available throughout the agency’s twenty-two parishes.

Laura graduated from LSU in 1984 and received her Juris Doctorate degree from Tulane Law School in 1987. She currently serves on the Board of the New Orleans Family Justice Center, Shared Housing, the Legal Services Corporation’s Housing Task Force, co-chaired the Legal Services Corporation’s National Disaster Task Force Relationship-Building and Integration of Legal Services into the Nation’s Emergency Management System.  She also serves on several local task forces and committees to improve civil legal services and housing opportunities for vulnerable people.

She has received national, state, and local awards for her work in the interest of housing justice and leadership. These include the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s Reginal Heber Smith Award, an LSBA Career Public Interest Award, Unity of Greater New Orleans Outstanding Advocate Award, a Community Voice’s Katrina Hero Award, and a 2021 City Business Leadership in Law Award