Louis G. Ferrand was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1966-1968, where he worked in the formation of agricultural marketing cooperatives (grapes and coffee).



Louis G. Ferrand Telephone: (202)458-3416 E-mail: LFerrand@oas.org Fax: (202)458-3410



Louis G. Ferrand is a Principal Attorney in the Department of Legal Services for the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. He is also a founding member and a Master in the Federal American Inn of Court which is dedicated to the teaching of litigation skills to law students and junior attorneys.

Mr. Ferrand has worked in both the public and private sectors as a chief litigator and as a legal advisor on a wide range of issues involving, inter alia, labor relations, civil rights, mine safety, corporate, contracts, procurement, and public international law. In addition, in the public sector, he has served as a principal advisor to program heads, and he headed and/or coordinated regulatory initiatives in equal employment opportunity, discrimination in employment on the basis of handicap, and mine safety and health.

Mr. Ferrand was a co-founder and first president of the Cornerstone Project, Inc. in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. He was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1966-1968, where he worked in the formation of agricultural marketing cooperatives (grapes and coffee). Following his Peace Corps service, he trained future Peace Corps volunteers in the Dominican Republic, and he later served as Director of Manpower Programs for the Grand Rapids, Michigan, Community Action Program which focused on finding jobs for economically disadvantaged individuals.

In 1971, Mr. Ferrand was hired into the Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice where he served as a trial attorney in the Employment Section of the Civil Rights Division for nearly five years. In 1976, he was recruited by the Solicitor's Office at the U.S. Department of Labor to establish a litigation program enforcing non-discrimination in employment by government contractors on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and religion. At the Labor Department, he served as Counsel for Civil Rights, Deputy Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights, and Deputy Associate Solicitor for Mine Safety and Health. In 1988, he entered private practice as Of Counsel to a Washington, D.C. firm which specialized in labor law. He came to the General Secretariat of the OAS in 1990.

Mr. Ferrand received his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan (1971), where he was a Quarter-finalist in the Campbell Competition. He received his B.A. degree in psychology from Alma College in Alma, Michigan (1964).

Mr. Ferrand is the elected Secretary General of the Inter-American Bar Association where he has served since 1995. He is Chair of the Federal Career Service Division of the Federal Bar Association, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of AYUDA, Inc. (a non-profit legal services agency in the District of Columbia). He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Fondo Quisqueya, Inc. (a non-profit corporation which provides education-related and career development grants to economically deprived individuals in the Dominican Republic).

He is admitted to the practice of law in the District of Columbia and Michigan, and he is also a member of the Inter-American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U. S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th, 11th, and D.C. Circuits.

Mr. Ferrand is married to the former Mary Eleanore Braseth. They have three children. He was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he grew up in Rockford, Michigan (north of Grand Rapids). He currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia. He speaks fluent English and Spanish and some Portuguese and French.





© 2001 Organization of American States.