2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Engaged Alumnus • Hon. Darrel J. Papillion
Class of 1994
District Judge • U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana
Each Thursday, Darrel Papillion makes the hour and a half drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to lead the second- and third-year students in his Civil Pretrial Litigation class at LSU Law.
“I try to leave in the early afternoon to make sure I don’t get caught in traffic,” he says just before the start of a recent class.
Papillion doesn’t hesitate when asked if it has been challenging to continue serving on the LSU Law adjunct faculty since he joined the federal bench as a District Judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana in June 2023.
“Absolutely, it has been—but it’s a labor of love.”
Papillion’s dedication to his alma mater is deeply rooted in his own experience at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, and the incalculable ways in which it has positively influenced his life and career.
He vividly recalls walking across the LSU Parade Ground in November 1990, manilla envelope in hand, to personally deliver his law school application. In fact, his memory is so detailed that he even remembers the name of the staff member on the second floor of the Law Center to whom he handed the envelope.
“All I had when I walked across that Parade Ground was potential and dreams,” he says. “I really wanted to be a lawyer, and I really wanted to go to LSU Law. I didn’t even apply anywhere else.”
Along with being accepted into LSU Law, Papillion was offered a scholarship that fully covered his tuition.
“I’ve always felt like I owe a great debt to LSU Law—and I like to pay my debts,” he says. “So, I told myself a long time ago that I’m going to give back as much as I possibly can to try to pay this law school back for all that it has given me.”
After graduating from LSU Law in 1994, Papillion practiced in New Orleans for four years before he got a call from Ed Walters (’75). The longtime LSU Law adjunct faculty member had taught Papillion during his final year of studies at LSU Law. Now, he was recruiting him to his Baton Rouge law firm—a move that would lead Papillion to join the LSU Law adjunct faculty shortly thereafter.
“If anyone loves LSU Law more than me, it’s Ed Walters,” Papillion says. “Ed was always encouraging me to be engaged with LSU Law, and his engagement with the law school is infectious. So, I don’t think I had been with him more than a few months before I started teaching Appellate Advocacy as an adjunct in 2000, and with maybe the exception of one or two years in between, I’ve taught here ever since.”
Though it might be his most visible contribution, teaching at LSU Law is far from the only way in which Papillion has remained engaged with his alma mater since his graduation. He’s a former Law Alumni Board of Trustees member, a longtime Dean’s Council member, and a guest speaker in more LSU Law classes than he can recall. He’s a familiar face at events such as the annual All-Alumni Tailgate and Reunion Weekend, during which he led a free CLE class for LSU Law alumni during his reunion year in 2024.
“We tend to use these lofty terms like, ‘in the academy,’ but I feel that what really keeps one at the forefront of practice is to be well connected and highly engaged, and maintaining a close connection to one’s law school is a great way to do that,” says Papillion, who is also heavily involved in the legal community outside LSU Law. “And now, as a federal judge, I genuinely feel a greater responsibility than ever before to remain engaged at LSU Law because I believe it’s important for the students to have a direct connection to an active district judge.”
Papillion knows his LSU Law history, and he draws inspiration from the many notable alumni who came before him and invested their time in him as a law student.
“I look to the example set by Judge (Alvin B.) Rubin (’42), who taught at LSU Law as a federal judge and adjunct professor,” he says. “As I walked into the Bruce Macmurdo Classroom on the first day of classes last year, it occurred to me that I was likely the only person after Alvin Rubin to walk into an LSU Law classroom and teach a forcredit course as a judge from the Eastern District. That certainly felt special, and I also knew Bruce Macmurdo (’78) well, so I really like teaching in his memorial classroom.”
And because he knows his LSU Law history, Papillion says being named the LSU Law 2025 Engaged Alumnus is “extremely special” in comparison to the many other awards he has received throughout his esteemed career. “This really means a lot to me. I have a deep understanding of the high caliber of people who have been honored as Distinguished Alumni at LSU Law before me. I am very humbled and gratified to receive such an award from the place that has already given me more than I could have ever imagined, and a place that I love so much.”
