Ray is a graduate of the LSU Law Center, where he was a member of the Louisiana Law Review. He maintained an active trial and appellate practice for 30 years at the Gold, Weems firm in Alexandria, where he served on the firm’s Board of Directors. Since 2014, he has served as General Counsel for RoyOMartin.
As lead trial counsel, Ray successfully defended numerous personal injury cases, wrongful death actions, and complex commercial claims in both state and federal courts, including the dismissal of toxic tort class actions and defense jury verdicts in mass joinder cases against Roy O. Martin Lumber Company and Colfax Treating Company in which plaintiffs sought awards of hundreds of millions of dollars for property contamination, death, cancer, and other catastrophic injuries.
For several years he has been named to Louisiana Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America. His professional activities include being a past lecturer on discovery and trial topics for the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, Louisiana State Bar Association, Loyola University School of Law, Tulane Law School, and the Louisiana Department of Justice. Ray was formerly a frequent faculty member of the Trial Advocacy Training Program at LSU Law School. He was elected as a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), is a Board Certified Civil Trial Specialist for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, the Senior Counsel for American College of Barristers, the Senior Counsel for The College of Master Advocates and Barristers, and was elected as a Member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, and a Fellow of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel Foundation. In addition, Ray is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel.
He currently lives in Alexandria, Louisiana, with his wife of more than 36 years, Ginger, and they have three children.
