“Powerful. Feisty. Intelligent. Deeply compassionate. Like a heroine from a novel.”
Those were the words I jotted down when meeting Kathleen Legendre. Raised in Shreveport, shaped by Mount Holyoke, and sharpened by years of service after Hurricane Katrina, Kathleen brings a beautiful balance of whimsy and rigor to the team at Zeringue & Associates Law Firm. An expert in family law, juvenile court, and civil legal aid, she built her career inside emotionally complicated courtrooms, helping people remain calm and focused when life takes twists and turns. Ask anyone whose life she changed, and they’ll agree: Kathleen has a way of making her surname ring true.
What first shaped the way you see the world as a woman and as a lawyer?
I grew up in Shreveport, and suddenly I was at a women’s college in Massachusetts, immersed in women’s studies, literature, history, and religion. That experience gave me a language for things I had sensed but never fully articulated. It helped me read literature and the Bible in a different way, not just across the page, but beneath it. And it still shapes how I move through the world.
How did you find your way into law?
It really was not a straight path. I thought about publishing, tried New York, worked in marketing in Chicago. Then I realized I wanted a profession that would challenge me intellectually and give me a strong, practical skill set. Law did both. At LSU Law, I discovered that once you learn the basics—the contracts, constitutional law, and legal theory—you get hooked. The research, the writing, and the analysis, it all felt deeply natural to me.
What’s at the heart of your work in family law?
Education. People often arrive feeling overwhelmed, and my role is to help them focus on what matters most in the moment: assets, debts, custody, deadlines, and next steps. I cannot rewrite the relationship, but I can help untangle it, guiding people from chaos to clarity. I like being the person who can say, “Here is where you are, here is where you are going, and here is how we start.”
Since this is our “Ladies” issue, what do women especially need to hear when life no longer feels stable?
Empower yourself before the crisis point arrives. Understand what you have. Know how to access records, accounts, and information. If you’ve put your career on hold, start reclaiming it now. Independence gives you dignity, confidence, and options. Empowerment is not just a slogan. It’s freedom.
What does reading give you that the law cannot?
Reading keeps me curious. I joke that I go “shopping at the library,” bringing home armfuls of books, from presidents to feminist fiction. It reminds me that people are more complicated than one chapter of their story, and that perspective informs my work as a lawyer.
What one word best describes you?
Compassionate. I care deeply about people, sometimes to a fault, but that’s what makes this work matter to me. When someone feels lost or overwhelmed, I want to help them breathe, understand what comes next, and move forward with courage, love, and purpose.
Kathleen Legendre is an associate attorney with Zeringue & Associates Law Firm, located at 527 E. Boston St., Suite 201, in Covington. For more information, call 985-801-0050, email zeringueoffice@lawyerincovington.com, or visit lawyerincovington.com.