Benjamin R. LaBranche

Ben LaBranche is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As the son of a Venezuelan mother and an American trial lawyer father he was exposed regularly to both Spanish and justice from an early age. In 2001, he graduated from LSU with a B.S degree in Business Management. He received his Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center in 2004 and was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in October 2004. After two years of private practice which focused primarily on civil litigation, he decided to pursue his passion for criminal law as a Public Defender in Baton Rouge. Five years service as a Public Defender have made him a seasoned criminal trial lawyer.

Ben has tried numerous jury trials and represented clients charged with murder, felony and misdemeanor DWI, Vehicular Homicide, Armed Robbery, all types of drug violations, crimes of violence, sex crimes, theft, embezzlement, and white collar crimes. Many of his clients only speak Spanish. He has experience representing clients who suffer from mental illness and have sanity and/or competency issues. In 2010, he represented a client charged with Aggravated Second Degree Battery for an alleged stabbing. The accused faced a mandatory life sentence as a habitual offender. A unanimous jury verdict was returned in 20 minutes acquitting his client of all felony charges, and his client was immediately released from prison.

Ben LaBranche is active in the professional organizations for criminal lawyers: locally, statewide, and nationally. He has been the president of the Baton Rouge Bar of Criminal Justice since 2009, and sits on the board of directors for the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (LACDL), which honored him in 2011 with its President's Award for his service to the organization. In 2008, he attended the National Criminal Defense College, an intense advocacy training program, where his instructors were some of the best criminal lawyers in the country. Ben is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and presently serves on its Indigent Defense Committee. He has been a guest lecturer at the LSU and Southern University Law Centers in the areas of Criminal Law and Indigent Defense. Rozas and Rozas welcomed him as member of their firm in January 2012.