Brandie is a partner based in MG+M's New Orleans office. She is a seasoned civil litigator who focuses her practice on environmental claims, products liability, premises liability, employer liability, toxic tort, insurance defense, and commercial litigation. These cases include personal injury and property damage resulting from wastes generated from oil and gas activities, benzene, talc, and asbestos.
Brandie is AV® Peer Review-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, a member of MG+M’s National Trial Team, and certified by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). She also serves on National Coordinating Counsel teams for multiple clients. As part of her practice, Brandie has worked with clients to examine and develop defense strategies. She regularly appears before numerous state and federal courts, and has successfully argued numerous dispositive motions and other significant motions to limit claims and the introduction of improper evidence in complex environment and toxic tort matters. In the past four years, she successfully briefed and argued more than seven dispositive motions, securing dismissals for clients in asbestos litigation with pending demands in the high six and seven figure amounts. She also secured a directed verdict for her client in a mesothelioma case.
Recently, Brandie defended a well owner in a legacy oil filed site case, where plaintiffs asserted over $200 million in damages due to alleged soil and groundwater contamination, as well as wetland loss and loss of vegetation. Brandie attended all plaintiff expert and fact witness depositions. Just prior to the hearing on dispositive motions, she resolved the matter for roughly .05 percent of plaintiffs’ total valuation of the case.
From an early age, Brandie was immersed in the legal system by attending court with her father, attorney Al Mendoza, and watching her great-uncle, the late Judge Frank Zaccarria rule from the bench. Throughout college, she spent time employed with the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson, and with the Louisiana House of Representatives as a Page to Representative N.J. D'Amico, thereby increasing her knowledge of the legal system, and driving her to attend law school.
Born and raised in the New Orleans area, Brandie earned her Juris Doctor in 2004 from Tulane University Law School. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Louisiana State University where she was accepted to the LSU Honors College, on the Dean's List, and a member and officer in Kappa Alpha Theta. During law school, Brandie received honors designation in trial advocacy, and was appointed to the interviewing and appointments committee.
Brandie, her husband James, and their children Sebastian and Alexis, reside in the New Orleans area.