Lafayette attorney Tyron Picard has formed The Picard Group, a state/federal governmental affairs, lobbying and business consulting group.
Lafayette attorney Tyron Picard has formed The Picard Group, a state/federal governmental affairs, lobbying and business consulting group. Picard is the former executive vice president of legal and governmental affairs for Acadian Ambulance Service and its related affiliates.
The new firm is headquartered in Lafayette at 1201 Camellia Blvd. in River Ranch and also has offices in Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C. It will serve clients at the local, state and federal levels. In December Picard announced his resignation from Acadian, where he worked for the past 12 years, to pursue this opportunity.
Picard also announced this week that his firm will have an affiliation agreement with the Roedel Parsons Law Firm of Baton Rouge. Picard will serve as special counsel to Roedel Parsons and lead the firm's Lafayette office. Roedel Parsons' governmental relations section is led by Johnny Koch of Baton Rouge and CJ Blache of New Orleans. The BR-based firm represents a broad base of clients, among which is Atmos Energy, Women's and Children's Hospital/HCA in Lafayette, the New Orleans Convention Center, Wal-Mart, Chevron and many others with ties to New Orleans.
Lafayette native Emily Bacque will serve as The Picard Group's primary federal government relations advocate in the firm's D.C. office with its affiliate government relations firm, CJ Lake. CJ Lake represents regional and national clients in transportation, telecommunications, military, defense, utility, financial, environmental and local government issues. The firm's client base includes cities and counties, small businesses and a Fortune 500 corporation. Prior to joining CJ Lake, Bacque served for five years as legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. John Breaux and brings a wide range of knowledge of grants, appropriations and discretionary funding opportunities on the federal level.
Also, Aprill Springfield joins The Picard Group as director of public policy research. "Aprill brings a wide array of working knowledge and experience from both the president's Cabinet and Capitol Hill for the benefit of The Picard Group, which will be of great value during the congressional earmark moratorium," says Picard. Springfield has 17 years of experience in federal and state policy, including work in the U.S. House and Senate and for two presidential administrations. Most recently she served as senior adviser in the Office of Global Health Affairs, which is under Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Read more about The Picard Group in the next issue of ABiz, which hits newsstands Feb. 23.