James Sutterfield

James R. Sutterfield, Sr., also known as Jim Sutterfield (born August 6, 1942),^[1] is an attorney from New Orleans, Louisiana, who served a half-term as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1970 to 1972. Sutterfield won a special election to succeed Democratic Representative Nat G. Kiefer, who was instead elected to the Louisiana State Senate to fill a vacancy created by a member's death. He was the first Republican to be elected to public office from New Orleans since Reconstruction. He represented District 26, which was broken up by re-districting into single member districts and renamed. The area of his residence became District 100, with the general election held on February 1, 1972.^[2]

Career

Sutterfield enrolled as a freshman at Tulane University in New Orleans, which he attended until transferring to the University of Texas at Austin in 1962. After completing his undergraduate studies, he enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and in 1967, graduated with a Bachelor of Laws. In 1981, he obtained a Master of Laws, with distinction, from the Tulane University Law School, also in New Orleans. He was admitted to the practice of law in Louisiana in 1967, and in the District of Columbia and the United States Supreme Court in 1977. His practice through his Sutterfield & Webb firm at 650 Poydras Street concentrates on maritime and insurance law. In 1993, Sutterfield obtained licensing to practice in Texas.^[3] Elected at the age of twenty-seven, Sutterfield was the only Republican in the state House during his abbreviated term.^[2] Sutterfield was only the fifth Republican to have served in the Louisiana House since Reconstruction.^[4] In the state Senate, A. C. Clemons of Jennings in Jefferson Davis Parish, served as a Republican, but he had been last elected in 1968 as a Democrat, with the second administration of Governor John McKeithen.^[5]

Since January, 1997, Sutterfield has served as honorary consul general of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the states of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee upon appointment of that island nation. In 2015, he became the presiding officer of the Louisiana Consular Corps.

References