John Pucheu

Education

I attended LSU in Baton Rouge and graduated with a B.S. in 1973. After working as a newspaper reporter, I attended LSU Law School and received a Juris Doctor degree in 1978. Then, I attended the University of Miami where I earned a Master of Laws in Estate Planning in 1979.

Experience

I started practicing law in 1979 with my father and my brother. Although I used my specialized training for estate planning matters focused on tax planning, I found that I enjoyed going to trial and eventually most of my practice involved trial litigation. Over the years, I conducted trials in numerous Louisiana state courts and the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Most of my trials involved personal injury or tort law but I also handled tax and probate litigation trials. I taught tort law as an instructor in the LSU-Eunice Paralegal Program for several years before that program was discontinued.

Although I mainly focused on trial work, I always spent part of my time handling estate planning and probate matters and probate litigation was a significant part of my practice. My experiences handling probate fights and my own personal experience from divisions in my family resulting from a lawsuit over the estate of my father's grandfather led me to decide that I wanted to be a lawyer who helped people avoid probate fights instead of being a lawyer who handled those fights. At the same time, I saw that people my age worried about long-term care more than they worried about taxes and realized estate planning could be more than just minimizing taxes and maximizing wealth at the expense of other things that really matter.        

In 2020, after forty years of practice focused on trial work, I decided to establish a law practice focused on the needs of older people such as incapacity planning, nursing home planning, and estate planning. I call my office South Louisiana Elder Law because that name reflects the focus of my practice.

I spent two years getting ready to change to this new kind of practice. My team and I have gone through a lot of training. We had to learn new computer programs and restructure how we handle workflows to concentrate on elder law matters. As of Jan. 1, 2022, I no longer accept cases related to trial work and only accept new clients for matters related to nursing home planning, Medicaid issues, estate planning, incapacity planning, and other elder law issues.

As part of my change of focus to elder law, incapacity planning, and estate planning, I joined the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys and participate in ongoing education from the AAEPA and Medicaid Practice Systems, a minimum of 36 hours of CLE each year. I am also a member of the American Bar Association and participate in the Section of Taxation, the Senior Lawyer Division, the Law Practice Division, and the Section of Real Property, Trust & Estate Law. I am also a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the St. Landry Parish Bar Association.

Personal

I am married to Rhonda Fink Moser, O.D. Although we both graduated from Eunice High School in 1969 and have known each other since we were in kindergarten, we were simply family friends for many years before our lives brought us together and we got married in 2006. Rhonda and I each have three children, so our blended family consists of six adult children and eleven grandchildren. Two children and six grandchildren live in Eunice and our other children and grandchildren live in Florida, Mississippi, New York, and Tennessee.

I am a long-time member of the Eunice Rotary Club and served as club President twice. I am a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Eunice Chamber of Commerce and also served as Chamber President. I have been active in civic affairs for many years and have been involved in many clubs and organizations.