W. Shelby McKenzie primarily practices in insurance law, university law and litigation. Mr. McKenzie is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the LSU Law Center, having taught the course in Insurance Law since 1971 to over 3000 law students.  He is also co-author of McKenzie and Johnson, Louisiana Insurance Law and Practice, 15 Louisiana Civil Law Treatise: Second Edition (West, 1986); Second Edition, 1996; Third Edition, 2006, with annual supplements and frequently cited in Louisiana decisions. He has served as an attorney, consultant, expert witness, mediator and arbitrator on insurance matters and frequently speaks on insurance topics at seminars.

During his career, Mr. McKenzie has litigated hundreds of suits involving many issues such as insurance coverage, torts, product liability, contracts, mineral rights and discrimination. Presently he is representing a joint defense group of excess insurers sued in a direct action by a class of 16,500 persons seeking damages arising out of a chemical release. Also, he is coverage counsel in another case for an insurer named in a lead paint class action.

Mr. McKenzie is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and former President of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, Baton Rouge Bar Association, and the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center Alumni Board of Trustees.  He was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® and Louisiana Super Lawyers.

Recent representations include:

• Represented umbrella liability insurer before the Louisiana Supreme Court in a decision holding that the million dollar umbrella policy did not drop down upon the insolvency of the underlying insurer, a decision overruling an earlier appellate court decision and affecting 30 pending actions;
• Represented a major regional hospital in successfully urging the Louisiana Supreme Court to overrule prior decisions and hold that a prescription statute protected the hospital for suit seeking damages from a transfusion received at the hospital 20 years earlier;
• Served as appellate counsel for the defendant bank in an appeal in which the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the award of $1.2 million dollars, finding no breach of duty of care.

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