With heavy hearts and immense appreciation for his contributions to the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, the LSU Law family is remembering the passion, wisdom, and warmth of Professor Emeritus Paul Baier following his passing on Friday, Feb. 18, at the age of 78.

“Paul’s passion for the law and legal education was second to none,” said LSU Law Interim Dean Lee Ann Wheelis Lockridge. “He adored being in the classroom with his students, and moreover couldn’t immerse himself deeply enough in Constitutional law and legal history, particularly of Supreme Court justices. Something more was always to be learned and shared. We have missed having him with us here at the Law Center since his retirement, and we will miss him all the more now.”

Baier taught for 47 years at LSU Law before his retirement in January 2020, and LSU subsequently named him Professor Emeritus to honor his distinguished career. During his nearly five decades at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Baier established himself as an expert in constitutional law, civil rights litigation, and appellate advocacy. Along the way, he touched the lives and influenced the careers of countless students. He also taught and inspired his colleagues.

“Paul had an enormous influence on my approach to and style of teaching—more, probably, than any other colleague,” said Professor John Devlin, who joined the LSU Law faculty in 1986 with little classroom experience and began sitting in on his colleagues’ classes to observe how they interacted with students. “Of all these, Paul’s were the classes I visited the most often, and from Paul I learned the most important lesson of all: That a teacher can and should do anything necessary to convey the message and to make sure that the students will remember it.”

For the first time in two years, LSU Law students were able to have in-person interviews with law firms at the Office of Career Services in the Paul M. Hebert Law Center as part of the annual Spring On-Campus Interview Week.

Over 60 law firms and corporations took part in over 200 interviews between Feb. 21-25. The pandemic has forced OCI events to be held virtually for the past two years.

The Office of Career Services thanks to employers recruiting LSU Law students for employment opportunities during Spring OCI, including Taylor Porter; Kean Miller; Jones Walker; LWCC; Entergy; Craig Gremillion & Associates; LaBorde Earles; Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson; Irwin Fritchie Urquhart & Moore; Bienvenu, Bonnecaze, Foco & Viator; Davenport, Files, & Kelly; Forman Watkins & Krutz; Long Law Firm; Balch & Bingham; Sher Garner Law Firm; Ayres, Shelton, Williams, Benson & Paine; Taylor, Wellons, Politz & Duhe; Briney Foret Corry; Chaffe McCall; Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver; and Gieger, Laborde, & Laperouse.

Legal scholars and professionals from across the country will convene at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center on Friday, March 25, for the "Seeking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault" symposium, presented by the George W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice.

The symposium will take place in the McKernan Auditorium from 1 to 5:15 p.m., and it will also be presented virtually. Four hours of CLE credits in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi are available for attendees. Among the distinguished panel of speakers will be the Hon. Rosemarie Aquilina, who presided over the 2018 Ingham County, Michigan sentencing of Larry Nassar, the longtime physician of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team who was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women.

Other speakers include: Alena Allen, interim dean and law professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law; Cordelia Coppleson, an assistant attorney general in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office; Laura Dunn, a founding partner of the L.L. Dunn Law Firm who is a nationally recognized victims’ rights attorney and social entrepreneur; Annette Milleville, deputy supervisor of the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Division in the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office; LSU Law Professor Lisa Avalos, who primarily teaches in the areas of criminal law and procedure, sex crimes, and professional ethics. LSU Law Professor Ray Diamond, director of the George W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice at LSU Law Center, will moderate the symposium.

LSU Law students Seth Pohlmann and Sammons Corbett won the Spring 2022 Ira S. Flory Mock Trial Competition on Monday, Feb. 7, besting fellow students Danny Tran and Ryan York during the final round of competition at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center.

The competition finals were held in the Robinson Courtroom, and the full mock civil trial was also streamed live. You can re-watch the finals here.

The distinguished panel of judges for the finals included Lykisha Vaughan (’12), Managing Attorney, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services Family Law Unit; LaToya Jordan (’10), Staff Attorney, Legal Division, Louisiana Board of Ethics; and Professor Jeffrey Brooks, Preis PLC Director of Advocacy & Professional Practice, LSU Law.

Supervised by Assistant Dean of Experiential Education Robert Lancaster, three LSU Law students—Chelsea Gaudet (pictured at right with a client), Rubenie Stimphil, and Shelby Terrell—helped three clients win grants of parole at hearings before the Louisiana Parole Board on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

“I will remember and treasure this experience for the rest of my life,” said Terrell, a second-year law student. “While I was being supervised, this was my first ‘client’ experience and the first time for me to use what I’ve learned in law school.”

Students in the Parole Assistance and Re-entry Clinic assist offenders seeking early release from prison through the parole process. They primarily represent prisoners who have served over 25 years, many having been sentenced to life for crimes they committed when they were children.

LSU Law Internet Applications Developer Sam Levy is one of just nine recipients of the 2021 LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award, which recognizes superior work performance and outstanding contributions of full-time, non-academic staff at the LSU flagship campus.

“I was very surprised,” Levy said of his selection for the award. “I had no idea that I had been nominated and felt honored that my co-workers and the administration had put me forward.”

Levy first came to LSU Law as a student worker when he was a freshman at LSU in 2006. He worked at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center throughout his undergraduate years and following his graduation in 2010 he was contracted to develop a comprehensive database of LSU Law alumni that continues to be used today. He joined the LSU Law staff full time in 2011.

“I enjoy the comradery and working relationship that we have at the law school,” said Levy. “After so many years it begins to feel like a second family.”

LSU Law Assistant Director of Career Services McKinzie Hall has been named one of Acadiana’s “Top 20 Under 40” by the705, a young leaders organization based in Lafayette. The honor recognizes 20 individuals under the age of 40 in the Acadiana region for their outstanding work and community contributions.

“I received the phone call that I won on the way into the Law Center on the Friday of my very first week,” said Hall, who joined the LSU Law staff in January. “I was overjoyed but one of the stipulations was that I couldn’t tell anyone until they made the official announcement. So, naturally, I forgot about it until the following week when Dean Lockridge sent me an email with congratulations the morning the announcement went live. It was like receiving the news all over again!”

Hall was recognized for her work at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she served as an academic advisor for the Department of Political Science prior to coming to LSU Law. In her previous post, she also assisted the university’s highly successful undergraduate moot court program and led it to its first national championship in 2021.

Jarvis Johnson joined the LSU Law staff as Coordinator of Experiential Education Programs in early February. In his new role, Johnson will assist with the administration of the clinics, field placements, and simulation courses that provide students with opportunities to earn credit while gaining real-life experience.

Johnson comes to LSU Law with extensive secondary education teaching and administration experience. He previously worked at Thrive Academy and GEO Prep Academy in Baton Rouge, and he is also a Teach for America alumni. Johnson earned his bachelor’s degree at Southeastern Louisiana University, and he holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from Southern University.

“I look forward to interfacing with everyone here at the Law Center as it relates to best serving our students,” Johnson said. “I would like to say thank you so much to all the people involved in selecting me for this phenomenal role in the law clinic.”

Tina Darby has joined the LSU Law staff full time as Coordinator of Instructional and Professional Practice Support. In her role, Darby will provide administrative support to faculty members.

Darby recently worked at LSU Law part time in the Law Clinic, and he has more than 20 years of experience in business management and administrative support. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Family and Consumer Science from Southern University.

In our latest Dean's Council Spotlight, 1985 LSU Law graduate Allison Jones talks about her work in employment law in Shreveport, the "legal gene" that runs in her family, and her work as Dean's Council Chair to increase Dean's Council membership through the "Geaux Beyond Three Percent" initiative that's being launched as part of LSU Giving Day on Wednesday, March 23.

"Upon accepting appointment to the Chair of the Law Dean’s Council, I learned something very surprising: Only about three percent of the Law Center’s living alumni make an annual contribution at the Dean’s Council level," she said. "It is my goal to change that fact, and I am going to work hard to achieve that goal. I want to kick-start recruitment with a virtual peer-to-peer initiative on Giving Day. I am assembling a group of current Dean’s Council members who are resolved to bring their fellow alumni into the fold. Each will have a webpage and have accepted the challenge of raising $5,000 or more in new memberships. We’re using the space-themed 'Mike the Astronaut' who encourages us to 'Geaux Beyond'—in our case, beyond three percent!"

After hearing oral arguments before the First Circuit Court of Appeal earlier in the morning, the LSU Law 1L class was treated to a panel presentation on tips for effective brief writing and oral arguments on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

The panel was comprised of LSU Law graduates and included (pictured left to right, with LSU Law Professor Heidi Thompson) attorney Marcus J. Plaisance (’10), the Hon. Guy Holdridge (’78), and the Hon. Jude Gravois (’78).

A new, comprehensive analysis of bar passage rates by graduates of 192 U.S. law schools has found that LSU Law graduates rank among the nation’s very best.

The analysis, titled “The Secret Sauce: Examining Law Schools that Overperform on the Bar Exam,” was recently published by CJ Ryan, an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, and Derek Muller, a Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law.

LSU Law is No. 13 in the analysis’ ranking of law schools producing graduates with the best bar passage rates, and it is the highest-ranked SEC law school in the analysis. The only other SEC schools in the top 25 rankings are the University of Georgia School of Law (No. 14) and Vanderbilt Law School (No. 25).

Recent LSU Law graduates working in eligible public service positions are encouraged to apply for the Loan Repayment Assistance Program before the April 1 deadline.

LSU Law anticipates offering up to $5,000 to ten or more alumni. Eligible alumni must have graduated within the past five years and be employed full time in eligible public service positions in Louisiana. See the complete eligibility requirements and apply online. For more information, contact Professor Jeff Brooks at JeffBrooks@lsu.edu or 225-578-8701.

Long-awaited reforms to the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program announced by the U.S. Department of Education last fall expand eligibility for law school graduates. To take advantage of the changes to the program, eligible borrowers who have not previously qualified for the program must apply before Oct. 31.

The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full time for a qualifying employer. The reforms aim to fix common problems many borrowers have previously experienced, which include miscounted payments, erroneous application rejections, and general confusion about how the program operates.

Since 2015, the American Association of Law Schools has worked with the American Bar Association, AccessLex, American Council of Education, Equal Justice Works, and others to form a coalition of nonprofit associations that works to preserve and improve the PSLF Program. The U.S. Department of Education estimates the program reforms could benefit hundreds of thousands of borrowers who can receive credit for payments already made. In some cases, borrowers may even be immediately eligible to have their federal loans forgiven.

All LSU Law graduates who have federal student loans are encouraged to check if the reforms will benefit them. You can see an overview of the PSLF Program reforms here, which includes answers to commonly asked questions and links to further resources.

As third-year student Marisa Del Turco is diligently working to complete her last semester of studies at LSU Law, she is on the cusp of achieving a goal she set many years ago.

“From a young age, I had the goal of becoming an attorney. Accordingly, I got my first job when I was 15 and my first legal internship when I was a senior in high school,” said Del Turco, who great up in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, just outside Denver. “My background also includes a variety of other jobs and internships in the legal profession, including a judicial externship and firm experience.”

Learn more about Del Turco and find out how you can support outstanding students like her through scholarships at LSU Law »

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