Ondine Arceneaux
Employment attorney
A job is a set of promises. I help people who were let down on one of them.
I’m the daughter of a hotel housekeeper and a bus mechanic, and I grew up listening to dinner-table arguments about overtime that never showed up and schedules that changed on Friday. I went to law school thinking I’d be the one to answer those arguments.
I’ve represented workers ever since, from a small office on Magazine Street. I don’t represent employers, and I don’t take cases from both sides of a workplace. That’s not a pose. It’s why a client can tell me the whole story.
Most of the people I help work in New Orleans’ biggest businesses: restaurants, hotels, hospitals, the port, the festival circuit. They’re rarely looking for a fight. They want what the job promised.
My admissions and schooling
The bar is a credential, not advice. Rules differ by place and change over time.
Bar admissions
Louisiana State Bar Association
2012
Courts
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
2013
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
2016
Education
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
J.D., 2012
Xavier University of Louisiana
B.A., 2008
Languages
English
Memberships
National Employment Lawyers Association
New Orleans Bar Association
How I work with you
I start by asking what would make this right for you. Some people want back pay. Some want a reference that doesn’t hurt them, or just for it to stop. I build around the answer.
I’ll tell you the odds
Early, plainly, and again whenever they change. If I don’t think you have a claim, you’ll hear it from me on the first call, not three months in.
You decide
Whether to settle, whether to keep going and whether to stay at the job are your calls. My part is making sure you’re making them with the facts.
Away from the office I’m usually walking along Bayou St. John with a very slow dog.
Start with a few lines about your job
Tell me what happened, in your own words. I’ll take it from there.