Chancellor Jack M. Weiss has announced the appointment of H. Alston Johnson to the resident faculty of the LSU Law Center. Subject to the approval of the LSU Board of Supervisors and the LSU System, the appointment will be effective in January, 2012 when Mr. Johnson retires from his twenty-seven years of service as a partner at the Phelps Dunbar law firm.
Beginning this spring, Johnson will teach a full course load and will direct the Law Center’s program of continuing legal education, formerly headed by Professor Emeritus Frank L. Maraist, who retired in July.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of our long time adjunct colleague, Alston Johnson, as a Professor of Professional Practice and Faculty Director of the Center of Continuing Professional Development,” said the Chancellor. “In 1984, Alston resigned from the LSU Law faculty to open the Baton Rouge office of the Phelps Dunbar law firm. At Phelps Dunbar, he has been instrumental in molding the Baton Rouge office into a highly successful group that includes many outstanding LSU Law graduates. Alston has built an impeccable reputation, in Louisiana and beyond, for competence, scholarly achievement, and integrity.”
Mr. Johnson is a 1970 graduate of the LSU Law Center. His appointment as Professor of Professional Practice is a non-tenure track position.
Mr. Johnson originally joined the LSU Law faculty in 1972 as an Assistant Professor of Law, and he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1975, and to Professor of Law in 1978. He is the author or co-author of three volumes of the Louisiana Civil Law Treatise series: Insurance (with LSU Law alum Shelby McKenzie), Workers Compensation, and Louisiana Jury Instructions – Civil.
While active on the faculty, Mr. Johnson also was a prolific publisher of articles on various subjects. As a member of the Law Center’s full-time faculty, he served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Judicial College. Over the years during his full time and adjunct faculty service, he has spoken at dozens of continuing legal education programs for lawyers and judges sponsored by LSU, the Louisiana Judicial College, and the Louisiana State Bar Association.
“Throughout Alston’s ‘visit’ at Phelps Dunbar, he has maintained a demanding teaching commitment here at the Law Center, teaching Federal Courts and Conflict of Laws as an adjunct to literally hundreds of our students,” noted Chancellor Weiss.
Mr. Johnson currently is scheduled to teach Conflict of Laws this fall and Federal Courts in the spring. Subject to faculty approval of the course assignment, Mr. Johnson also will teach Louisiana Civil Procedure I in the spring, replacing recently retired Professor Emeritus Howard L’Enfant in that course.
