Tad Bartlett

Practice Areas

Tad Bartlett, who leads the firm’s Appellate Practice, focuses on appellate advocacy and brings deep experience across state and federal courts nationwide.

Career

Tad has built a nationally recognized appellate practice, representing clients in all Louisiana state courts, multiple federal circuit courts of appeal—including the Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits—and in certiorari proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court. An Appellate Practice Specialist certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization, he serves as a member of the LBLS Appellate Practice Advisory Commission.

Tad also was an integral part of a multi-firm team that developed the coastal litigation practice regarding land-loss on behalf of both landowners and governmental entities. In addition, Tad has been deeply involved in numerous complex commercial cases, from preferential rights disputes to bet-the-company litigation, as well as construction litigation.

Since 2019, Tad has served on Tulane Law School’s faculty as an adjunct professor, teaching an advanced seminar on Coastal Law Litigation & Policy each spring.

Professional Memberships

• American Association for Justice, Member

• Federal Bar Association – New Orleans Chapter, Member

• New Orleans Bar Association, Member

• Tulane Institute of Water Resources Law and Policy, Advisory Board Member

Publications

Tad runs the Take the Fifth blog, which digests all opinions released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, summarizes all opinions designated for publication, and tracks statistics on opinion releases from the Circuit.

He also writes short stories and essays. His work has been published in the Oxford American, Bitter Southerner, Massachusetts Review, Carolina Quarterly, Stockholm Review of Literature, and many others. One piece was named a “notable” essay by Best American Essays 2017.

Experience

Tad first practiced under the Louisiana student practice rule in 1999 as a member of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic before graduating magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from Tulane Law School in 2000. While at Tulane, Tad served for a year as a research assistant to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (U.S. Supreme Court) and Judge James L. Dennis (U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit) for a class on comparative human rights law. After graduating, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge Dennis.

Work Highlights

Vintage Assets, Inc. v. Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., L.L.C., 20-0065, 20-0066 (La. App. 4 Cir. 3/19/2020) (unpub.): On competing writ applications, successfully had trial court summary judgment affirmed in part that held that pipeline companies had a duty to maintain canal widths where servitude agreements required pipeline canals not exceed a certain width, and successfully had trial court summary judgment ruling reversed in part on holding that this duty to maintain canal widths also applied to servitude agreements that did not state a specific canal width.

Education

Awards