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U.S. Attorneys » Eastern District of Louisiana » Meet the U.S. Attorney

Senior Management

First Assistant United States Attorney

Duane A. Evans serves as the First Assistant United States Attorney.  Between November 2012 to November 2015, Mr. Evans served as the Chief of the Criminal Division.  He joined the United States Attorney’s Office in August 2000 as an Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the Criminal Division.  During his tenure in the Firearms/Violent Crimes Unit, he specialized in prosecuting matters related to firearms, narcotics, and violent crime.  In 2006, he became the Supervisor for the Violent Crimes/Project Safe Neighborhoods Unit.  In 2010, he became Chief of the Strike Force and Anti-Gang Unit.  Beginning in June 2012, he served as Senior Litigation Counsel until his promotion to the position of Criminal Chief.  Mr. Evans graduated from Tulane University School of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990 and from Loyola University College of Law in 1995.  Mr. Evans served a judicial clerkship for Virgin Islands Superior Court Judge Ishmael A. Meyers from 1995-1997.  He later worked as an Assistant District Attorney for the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office from 1998 to 2000.  He is a native of St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands.

Executive Assistant United States Attorney

Sharon D. Smith serves as the Executive Assistant United States Attorney.  Ms. Smith joined the United States Attorney’s office in October 2002 as an Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the Civil Division where, until November 2013, she specialized in prosecuting Affirmative Civil Enforcement cases.  In 2004, she was appointed as a unit supervisor overseeing attorneys handling a variety of civil affirmative and defensive cases, including drug diversion, torts, bankruptcy, immigration, land condemnation, FOIA and Title VII.  In 2005, she was also appointed the district’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Coordinator and Civil Health Care Fraud Coordinator.  While in the Civil Division, Ms. Smith received the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General Cooperative Achievement Award in 2007 and the Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Integrity Award in 2008.  In November 2013, Ms. Smith became the office’s Deputy Executive Assistant U. S. Attorney until her promotion to her current position on May 1, 2014.  Prior to her employment with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Smith was a partner at Pulaski, Gieger and Laborde in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she practiced civil defense litigation for 17 years.  She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 1980 and from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert School of Law in 1985.

Chief of the Civil Division

Peter M. Mansfield serves as Chief of the Civil Division. Prior to his current position, Mr. Mansfield served as Deputy Chief of the Civil Division since 2008. Since 2007, Mr. Mansfield also has supervised the office’s Financial Litigation Unit which is responsible for the enforcement and collection of criminal fines, restitution, and civil judgments in the district. As a supervisory AUSA, Mr. Mansfield has been the lead editor and reviewer of the office’s civil appeals in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2011.  Mr. Mansfield joined the United States Attorney’s Office in 2005 and has handled both defensive and affirmative civil cases in district and appellate courts as lead counsel. After graduating from Franciscan University and Ave Maria School of Law, both magna cum laude, Mr. Mansfield began his legal career as a litigation associate at Adams and Reese, L.L.P. in its New Orleans office. Mr. Mansfield is a native of Metairie, Louisiana.

Updated August 29, 2017