ANTHONY J. STAINES was born in Belize, British Honduras on January 17, 1955. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Orleans in 1976 and earned a Juris Doctorate from the Louisiana State University Law Center in 1980. He served a judicial clerkship from 1980-1981 with the Honorable Frank J. Polozola, United States District Judge, Middle District of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He then became an associate with the firm of Lugenbuhl, Larzelere & Ellefson of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1981, later becoming a shareholder in the firm Larzelere, Ellefson & Pulver, and its successor, Ellefson, Pulver & Staines.

In February, 1992, he and Tom Eppling formed the law firm of Staines & Eppling. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Member: Committee on Admiralty and Maritime Litigation; Litigation - Tort and Insurance - Admiralty and Maritime Committee, Products General Liability and Consumer Law, Trial Technique); Louisiana State Bar Association (House of Delegates); Federal Bar Association; New Orleans Bar Association (Member: Committee on Continuing Legal Education, Litigation, Maritime Law, Torts and Insurance Practice); Jefferson Bar Association; Louisiana Bar Foundation Fellow; Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel (Faculty Member: Trial Academy); New Orleans Association of Defense Counsel; New Orleans Claims Association; Greater New Orleans Chamber of Commerce (Leadership Institute); Maritime Law Association of the United States; Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute; Defense Research Institute (Member: Admiralty Committee - Vice Chair of Seminar and Programs Subcommittee); the Mariners Club of the Port of New Orleans; the Mariners Club of the Port of Houston; and the Propeller Club. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court; the United States Courts of Appeal, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits; United States District Courts, Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana and all Louisiana state courts. He is married and the father of three children.