About

— About Pelican Succession Law —

A Firm Built for One Thing: Louisiana Successions.

Most law firms treat Louisiana successions as a sideline practice area. We do nothing else — and that focus is why we deliver in days what general-practice firms take months to finish.

LSBA Member

#39827

Service Area

64 / 64 Parishes

Avg. Close

14 business days

Response

2 business hours

Pricing

Flat fee · $0 retainer

Our Mission

Make Louisiana succession predictable, transparent, and humane.

Louisiana families shouldn’t have to choose between a hourly-billing meter that runs nine months and a DIY mistake that costs three times more to fix later. We built Pelican Succession Law to be the firm we’d want to call if we had to bury a parent — flat fee quoted up front, 14-day average close, and an attorney who picks up the phone.

— Our Story —

Built Around Expertise.

Louisiana succession law sits at the intersection of French civil law, Spanish civil law, and a century of Louisiana judicial interpretation. Forced heirship. Usufruct. Naked ownership. Community property. Ancillary successions. Mineral interests. These are the concepts that trip up general-practice firms and create costly mistakes for families.

Our team has handled thousands of Louisiana successions spanning the entire complexity range — from $50,000 simple successions for a single bank account, to multi-million-dollar matters involving multiple properties, blended families, mineral interests, contested wills, and out-of-state heirs.

We built Pelican Succession Law to do this work better, faster, and more transparently than any traditional firm. Document automation, a disciplined intake-to-judgment process, and flat-fee pricing align our incentives with yours: get the matter resolved properly and quickly, then move on with your life.

Practice Focus

Louisiana successions exclusively

Volume

Thousands of successions handled

Estate Range

$50K to multi-million

Geography

All 64 Louisiana parishes

Bar Admission

Louisiana State Bar Association

Why Succession Specifically

Built around one frustration.

The thing we couldn’t stop thinking about: nine out of ten Louisiana successions are predictable. The same documents. The same statutory framework. The same parish-by-parish filing process. Yet most Louisiana families paid $5,000 to $15,000 in hourly fees for a matter that should take an attorney with the right systems 8 to 15 hours of work.

Worse: families waited four to nine months for a Judgment of Possession that, with document automation and disciplined process, should issue in two to three weeks. The cost of the delay wasn’t just money — it was lost real-estate closings, suspended mineral royalties, and adult children stuck flying back and forth to Louisiana from Texas or Florida to sign documents because nobody told them they didn’t have to.

Pelican Succession Law was built to do this one thing exceptionally well. Not because succession is glamorous, but because it’s the area where the gap between what most firms deliver and what families actually need is widest.

— Meet Your Attorney —

Ronald C. Cantin, Principal Attorney.

Ronald C. Cantin is the principal attorney at Pelican Succession Law. He is licensed to practice in Louisiana — Louisiana State Bar Association member #39827 — and concentrates his practice on Louisiana successions, forced heirship, mineral-rights succession, and ancillary representation for out-of-state heirs across all 64 parishes.

Three commitments structure every engagement: a flat fee quoted in writing before you sign, a two-business-hour first response from an attorney (not an intake assistant), and direct attorney access throughout your matter — you work with the lawyer handling your file, not a paralegal you’ve never met.

Read full bio →

Bar Number

LSBA #39827

Jurisdiction

Louisiana (only)

Concentrations

Successions, forced heirship, mineral-rights succession, ancillary representation

Parishes Served

All 64 Louisiana parishes

Ronald’s Credentials & Background

Bar Admissions

  • Louisiana State Bar Association
    Member #39827 · Active, in good standing
  • Licensed only in Louisiana — for matters requiring counsel in another jurisdiction, Pelican coordinates with attorneys in the destination state

Professional Memberships

  • Louisiana State Bar Association
  • LSBA Estate Planning & Probate Section (eligibility pending)
  • Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association (prospective)

Education

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Juris Doctor.

Languages

English (primary) · French civil-law terminology (working familiarity for archival research)

Practice Concentrations

  • Louisiana successions (uncontested + contested)
  • Forced heirship analysis
  • Mineral-rights succession
  • Ancillary representation for out-of-state heirs
  • Stalled real-estate closings

Community Involvement

[GALEN: please supply community boards, pro bono work, bar committees if applicable.]

— Our Approach —

Three Principles That Drive Every File.

Specialization over generalization

We do one thing exceptionally well: Louisiana successions. Deep focus lets us anticipate the issues a generalist would miss — forced heirship, usufruct allocation, mineral-interest descriptive lists, ancillary jurisdiction, and the dozen other places general-practice firms make expensive mistakes.

Process over hours

Document automation and a disciplined intake-to-judgment process let us deliver in days, not months. Hourly billing rewards inefficiency. Flat-fee billing rewards us for working faster — the same outcome you want.

Transparency over uncertainty

Flat fees mean you know your cost before you sign, period. No retainers, no surprise invoices, no nine-page itemized statements. You get a written quote within 24 hours of your free consultation.

— What Sets Us Apart —

Why Louisiana Specialization Matters.

Louisiana is the only U.S. state with a civil-law legal system, inherited from French and Spanish colonial governance. The rules that govern who inherits, when, and in what proportion are written into the Louisiana Civil Code — a body of law that has no equivalent in any other state.

A general-practice attorney handling a succession in addition to family law, real estate closings, and commercial contracts spends a few weeks each year on succession matters. We spend every day on them. The difference shows up in the Judgment of Possession, in the timeline, in the cost, and most importantly in the absence of follow-up problems years later when a property goes to sell.

The cases we handle every week

  • Uncontested family successions — the standard 14-day flat-fee matter
  • Out-of-state heirs inheriting Louisiana mineral rights or real estate
  • Stalled real-estate closings where the seller never opened a succession
  • Multi-generational chain-of-title problems unwound through sequential successions
  • Forced-heirship analysis on estates with minor or incapacitated children
  • Multi-state estates where Louisiana is one of several jurisdictions
  • Disputed wills, contested heirship, partition actions
  • Multi-million-dollar estates with business interests, trusts, and tax considerations

What you get when you hire us

  • A flat-fee quote within 24 hours of your free consultation — no retainer, no hourly billing, no surprise invoices
  • 14-day average close on uncontested matters from the date we have all documents
  • One notarized signature from you — we draft, file, and follow up
  • Direct delivery of the Judgment of Possession and certified copies to you, your bank, your title company, or the oil and gas operator holding suspended royalties
  • Honest assessment if the matter becomes contested — with a written quote for the next phase before any additional work begins

— Recent Outcomes —

Real Pelican Matters, Anonymized

This section showcases anonymized outcomes from recent Pelican matters. As we close additional matters, new entries will be added here.

Matter type

[Outcome headline will go here]

[Anonymized description: parish, type of estate, key complication, how Pelican resolved it, timeline]

Galen: replace with real outcomes after the first 5–10 closings.

Coming Soon

[Outcome headline 2]

[Placeholder — Galen, paste the next anonymized matter outcome here.]

Coming Soon

[Outcome headline 3]

[Placeholder — Galen, paste the next anonymized matter outcome here.]

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every Louisiana succession depends on its particular facts and applicable law.

The Process

From first call to Judgment of Possession in 14 days

Five steps: consult, sign & pay, we draft, you sign once, judgment delivered. Document automation lets us prepare succession pleadings in hours rather than days.

See the full process →

Direct Line

Talk to the attorney

Have a specific question? Ronald responds to email and phone calls personally during business hours.

(504) 389-6100
info@pelicanfirm.com

— Get Started —

Ready When You Are.

Tell us about your situation. Free quote within 24 hours.

Get a Free Quote