A Conversation with Michael A. Villa, Jr.

Join Joel Crouch as he sits down and has a conversation with Michael (Mike) A. Villa, Jr. about growing up in Louisiana, his heritage, including living through Hurricane Katrina, his education, and practicing law. Mike is a 7th generation New Orleans native. Both his father and uncle were lawyers and this was something he always wanted to do. He was very interested in politics and initially thought he would have a career that focused on law and politics. Ultimately, he decided to stay on the lawyer path. Mike joined a New Orleans law firm in August of 2005 and then Hurricane Katrina hit later that same month. His entire family lost their homes as much of New Orleans was totally destroyed. He began working out of the Lafayette office of his firm and worked many hurricane-related matters. Mike decided to go to NYU to obtain his LL.M. in Tax in 2007. New York was a cultural shock for him. Mike had already taken the LA and TX bar examines back-to-back. For personal reasons and the business climate, he came to Texas. He joined Meadows Collier in 2007 and quickly began working on tax shelter cases. Currently, his practice is 60-75% criminal tax, and he sees civil inquiries too on his cases from the government. Listen to Mike and Joel discuss how the practice of law has changed since 2007, and finally Mike's advice to anyone who is thinking about becoming a lawyer.