WASHINGTON – Baton Rouge trial lawyer Darrel Papillion was nominated as a trial judge on the New Orleans-based U.S. Eastern District of Louisiana bench, the White House announced Monday afternoon.
A former president of the Louisiana State Bar, Papillion represents plaintiffs in complex wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits, including those involving injuries caused by consumer products, industrial accidents and other allegations.
He was tapped by President Joe Biden to replace U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier, of New Orleans, who at the age of 78 has taken senior status. Papillion is Biden’s 161st federal judicial nomination.
Papillion, 54, did not return calls seeking comment.
He grew up in the rural St. Landry Parish community of Swords. Not understanding racial differences as kindergartener, Papillion was scolded for not self-identifying as Black, Papillion said in a March 2022 Louisiana State Bar Foundation oral history. It wasn’t until later that day that his parents explained race to him.
A voracious reader, Papillion said he knocked out 100 books one summer. As a teenager he worked in the parish courthouse and city hall in Opelousas, watching how lawyers and judges operated. Because Papillion speaks French, he also was an early morning disc jockey at KEUN radio station in Eunice.
He started at LSU-Eunice because his mother was concerned about “being so far away” in Baton Rouge if he went to LSU. Eventually Papillion was able to convince his family that he’d be okay 88 miles east at LSU’s main campus. He graduated LLSU, then crossed Highland Road to attend the law school.
After receiving his law degree from the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Papillion began working in August 1994 worked as a law clerk for Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice Catherine D. Kimball. It was there, reading appellate records and helping to write opinions, Papillion said he honed the craft of legal writing and how to operate complex cases.
“He’s an experienced, scholarly attorney with a fine temperament,” said Robert Kleinpeter, another Baton Rouge lawyer who represents plaintiffs against large companies and insurers. “He has an excellent ability to put things in perspective and not to take things so personally.”
After clerking at the Louisiana Supreme Court, Papillion defended companies and insurers in the products liability section at McGlinchey Stafford’s New Orleans office. He joined a Baton Rouge firm representing plaintiffs personal injury lawsuits in 1999. He got his name on the letterhead in 2009 and has been a name partner since in Walters, Papillion, Thomas, & Cullens LLC in Baton Rouge.
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