Local Government

The Fishman Haygood Local Government team is led by attorneys, including two from Louisiana’s highest state and municipal levels of government, who have unparalleled experience with the legal, political, regulatory, infrastructure, and community issues that affect the state and its parishes, municipalities, school boards, hospital systems, water districts, and more.

Governing bodies are charged with overseeing the continued improvement of the communities they serve. The most effective governmental representation, then, requires attorneys with specific knowledge of the unique procedural and substantive rules related to a diverse array of issues—from general public law, public finance, and economic development to complex litigation and beyond.

With years of public service and decades of experience in private practice, Fishman Haygood attorneys combine insider perspective with the legal know-how necessary to handle our clients’ most important issues. Led by special counsel John Bel Edwards, the 56^th Governor of Louisiana, and special counsel Sharonda Williams, former City Attorney for the City of New Orleans, Fishman Haygood’s Local Government team maintains an intimate understanding of the financial, developmental, and infrastructure challenges associated with government administration.

During his two terms as the highest elected official in the state, Edwards built a network of relationships not only with local leaders and officials in parishes and municipalities but also with agency leaders at the federal level. While in office, he coordinated with all levels of government through fifty state emergencies and twenty-three federal disaster declarations. Edwards also led the response to and recovery from the COVID pandemic, which—in turn—only served to deepen his knowledge of rural hospital districts. Among his legislative, fiscal, and regulatory successes as governor were initiatives like Medicaid expansion, budget stabilization, and criminal justice reform.

Williams is especially qualified to handle governmental matters at the municipal level. As City Attorney, Williams worked closely with the United States Department of Justice as the lead attorney handling the most comprehensive police consent decree in the history of the United States and the consent decree aimed at reforming the Orleans Parish Jail. Williams was also the lead attorney representing the City in settling a more than 30-year dispute relating to back pay and pension issues for the New Orleans Firefighters. She has represented the Orleans Parish School Board, composed of duly elected officials representing seven geographic areas, on numerous occasions.

In litigation matters, the firm’s attorneys have appeared in district and appellate courts, as well as the Louisiana Supreme Court, on behalf of local jurisdictions, agencies, school boards, and political subdivisions like levee districts. They ably provide full-service counsel across a wide range of government systems, including, but not limited to, the following:

• drafting government agency actions and declarations like ordinances, resolutions, and policy statements;
• representing local governing bodies in tort and litigation matters involving police liability, civil rights claims, coastal wetlands damages, and miscellaneous property rights claims;
•  litigating construction matters, including contract disputes, bid protests, and public bid law disputes; and
• litigating a variety of matters related to real estate development, investment, leasing, zoning, and land use.

The firm also often represents municipal and governmental entities in complex commercial litigation against their financial counterparties. Our Governmental Securities Litigation team has represented, among others, the City of New Orleans, the City of Houston, the City of Lafayette, the City of Lake Charles, the Louisiana Firefighters Pension Fund, and the Louisiana Municipal Employees Pension Fund.

Fishman Haygood’s litigation capabilities are only bolstered by our team’s ability to provide services to our clients across multiple practice areas, including in our Real Estate section. Our attorneys regularly provide counsel to state, city, parish, and other governing bodies on public-private partnerships, ably navigating land use, regulatory, and permitting issues between developers, the state, parishes, and municipalities.

Recognized as one of the leading land use attorneys in Louisiana, partner Charles Landry has represented governmental entities in the drafting of zoning legislation, including the City of Lafayette’s traditional neighborhood development ordinance and the Parish of Ascension’s planned unit development ordinance. He was also a founding member and served as the Chairperson of the East Baton Rouge Zoning Advisory Committee from its formation in 2003 to 2017.