Michelle D. Craig currently serves as Managing Partner of Transcendent Legal. With over 14 years of Am200 law firm experience, she was a partner with Adams and Reese LLP, New Orleans before starting her own firm. She holds dual degrees including a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) and a Bachelor of the Civil Law (B.C.L.) from the Louisiana State University (LSU) Law Center. She also studied International and Comparative Law at the Université d’Aix Marseille III, France.
She facilitates efficient, effective negotiation, mediation and resolution of legal matters for small to large companies in the areas of litigation, labor and employment, economic development, and transactions. She incorporates project management and process improvement throughout her cases. To assist small and medium-sized firms in their process improvement, she created Prosquire, a legal project management software. She is very active in the community and currently serves at the Chairperson of the Orleans Parish Civil Service Commission.
Michelle began her legal career at Jones Walker where she worked in the Baton Rouge, LA and Houston, TX offices from 2002 until 2007. In 2007, she became an Associate at Adams and Reese LLP, and in 2010, became the first African-American Female Partner in the New Orleans office. Her specialty includes labor and employment, business and commercial transactions, litigation, and education. Her legal tech software, Prosquire, was launched in 2014. Through Prosquire, Michelle developed and implemented strategies for a successful launch of the SaaS technology. She also currently effectively handles data privacy, security, and software matters associated with the technology, and interfaces with investors and incubators in efforts to provide funding for Prosquire.
In 2014, Michelle Co-founded Transcendent Legal, LLC. As Managing Partner, she uses technology and cloud-computing to service start-ups and potentially high-growth companies with a variety of issues such as: incorporation and formation, business planning, employment matters, intellectual property issues, drafting and advising on contracts and contract disputes, and day-to-day guidance. She also serves as outside general counsel for companies and charter schools handling her client’s litigation and transactional matters as well as their day-to-day legal needs.
Throughout her career, Michelle has maintained status as a leader in her community by continued appointment to community leadership roles. In 2007, she was appointed Legal Counsel for the National Association of African-Americans in Human Resources. She maintained this title through 2009. During the last two years of this appointment, Michelle concurrently served as a board member of the First Tee of Greater New Orleans. In 2010, the last year of her position on the board of the First Tee of Greater New Orleans, she was appointed to Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Transition Team on Blight and became a Member of the Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard Merchants & Business Association Board of Advisors. In 2008, while serving as Legal Counsel for the National Association of African-Americans in Human Resources, Michelle founded The Urban League Young Professionals, and sat on the board as an Executive Member until 2011. During her first years as Partner at Adams and Reese, LLP, she began serving on the Adams and Reese Advisory Committee and the Adams and Reese Diversity Committee. In 2012, she Co-Founded DiversiTea, a Mentoring Organization and began service as a Board Member of the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights. During this same year, she was also a founder of The Urban League New Orleans Guild. She was appointed Co-chair of the Adams and Reese Women in the Profession Sub-Committee in 2013, and in that same year, began her membership of the New Orleans Civil Service Commission. Two years later, she became Chairperson of the New Orleans Civil Service Commission and holds this seat to this date.
