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Taylor Porter Partner Mike Walsh will team up with Baker Donelson attorney Paul West to present, "The Law, The Families, The Game," at the Third Annual Problem Gambling Awareness Seminar, to be held from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., on Friday, March 2, at the Bluebonnet Library in Baton Rouge. Walsh's and West's presentation will run from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. 

Partnerships between Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling, Louisiana Casino Association, State Police Gaming Division, Attorney General’s office, Louisiana Lottery, Gaming Control Board and the Legislatures will come together in support of PGAM. Sponsors include the LACG, Northwest Louisiana Human Services District​, L’Auberge Casino & Resort, Hollywood Casino, and the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals – Office of Behavioral Health.

​Speakers in addition to Walsh and West will include: Janet Miller, Executive Director, Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling; Dr. Louis Cataldie, M.D.; Kenneth Saucier, Manager for Problem & Compulsive Gambling Programs, LDH; Lonnie Bridges, Consultant & Director of The Pierite Group, LLC; and personal recovery stories from recovering gamblers and their families.

March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month in which groups across America hold conferences, air Public Service Announcements, provide counselor trainings, host screening days, run social media campaigns and many other activities to increase public awareness of problem gambling and the availability of prevention, treatment & recovery services. The 2018 PGAM theme is “Have the Conversation”.

Practice Group Leader of Taylor Porter's Criminal Defense and Domestic Relations Law practices, Mike Walsh has more than 35 years of experience representing individual and corporate clients in complex criminal and civil litigation and enforcement cases throughout the country. His practice, which includes a variety of grand jury and trial matters, involves public corruption, antitrust, healthcare, False Claims Act, Lacey Act, environmental matters, and alcoholic beverage licensing and related enforcement issues. Walsh currently chairs the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Criminal Law Section. By approval of the Louisiana Supreme Court, he serves as judge pro tempore of the East Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Court. Walsh formerly served as president of the Baton Rouge Bar Association and the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 

Walsh was ranked by Best Lawyers® as the Criminal Defense: Non-White Collar “Lawyer of the Year" in 2016, and he has been selected by his peers among Louisiana Super Lawyers® in Criminal Defense Law. In addition to his criminal defense and family law practice, Walsh represents lawyers, law firms, and judges in disciplinary proceedings, malpractice matters, professional liability claims and ethics violations, and he is a frequent lecturer on ethics, professionalism, and litigation skills, instructing prosecutors, defenders and federal investigators on professional liability and ethics, both internationally (Austria, Canada), and nationally (Louisiana, Florida, California). Walsh is the former chairman of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. Walsh teaches a course on Professional Responsibility and Ethics as an adjunct professor of law at Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Walsh graduated from Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1983. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from LSU in 1979.