Deborah "Debbie" Spiess Henton

Staff List

Department: Executive Counsel
Phone: 225-343-2835

Profile:
As Executive Counsel, Debbie brings an extensive combination of experience to the Association. Debbie has practiced law for more than twenty-five (25) years. She represented St. Tammany Parish Government for eleven (11) of those years. During that representation, she litigated and addressed many matters that are important to parish governments, such as the establishment and termination of and the authority over rights to road and drainage infrastructure, subdivision development, environmental services authority, sales tax, special tax expenditure limitations, immunities, code enforcement, statutory funding mandates, annexation, discretionary immunity versus operational decisions, and the Public Records Law. In recent years, she has lectured on topics involving the Public Records Law as to how to comply with the law and identify and address potential issues.

She graduated with honors from the University of Southern Mississippi in Music and Business in 1989 and from Loyola Law School – New Orleans in 1994. She is licensed in Louisiana and in Mississippi. She has been admitted to practice in all Louisiana state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, and all Mississippi state and federal district courts. Debbie is a member of the 22nd Judicial District Bar Association and the 22nd Judicial District American Inn of Court. Debbie holds an AV Preeminent Rating with Martindale-Hubbell.

Debbie is active in her community. She was a leader in Boy Scout Troop 85, First Baptist Church of Mandeville; an active member of the Fontainebleau High School Crimson Band Booster Club for seven years; on the Board of the Northshore Performing Arts Society; and is in the choir at St. Timothy United Methodist Church.

She and her husband, Alan, have been married thirty-one (31) years and have two children, Canon and Thomas.