1985 LSU Law graduate Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is being honored as the Brother Martin High School 2023 Alumnus of the Year.
LSU Law alumnus Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is being honored as the Brother Martin High School 2023 Alumnus of the Year.
The prestigious award is presented annually by the Brother Martin High School board of directors to an alumnus selected for contributions to his profession and for his religious, civic, business, educational and community involvement. Judge Engelhardt graduated from the all-male, Catholic, college preparatory high school in New Orleans in 1978. He earned his undergraduate degree from LSU in 1982, and he graduated from LSU Law in 1985.
“Being named Alumnus of the Year is very humbling, considering those who have been recognized in the past, and the thousands of Brother Martin grads continuously doing wonderful things for their communities and professions,” Judge Engelhardt said.
Engelhardt, a New Orleans native, is actively involved in the Brother Martin community. Along with serving as a guest speaker for law studies classes, he regularly participates in Brothers of the Sacred Heart Alumni Association of New Orleans events, including the Marty Gras Benefit Concert, Golden Crusader Lunch, President’s Dinner, and Alumni Band events. He will officially receive the Alumnus of the Year award on March 12 at an event in the Audubon Tea Room at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans.
“Judge Engelhardt is not only outstanding in his chosen profession, his is everything we look for in an alumnus,” said Brother Martin High School Advancement and Alumni Relations Director Kenny Spellman. “He supports Brother Martin High school in every aspect, from volunteering his time to supporting our mission. He’s someone we can tell our students to ‘be like this man.’”
Active in the New Orleans legal community, Judge Engelhardt is currently an advisory board member of the Federalist Society’s New Orleans chapter, and he is a past member of the United States Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction. He’s a member and past president (2011-12) of the board of directors of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, in addition to being a member of the American Judicature Society and the District Judges Association of the Fifth Circuit. As a member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, he has attended the National Sentencing Policy Institute’s program in Washington, D.C.
Judge Engelhardt has served on the Fifth Circuit’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Committee, which is charged with updating and/or drafting pattern jury instructions for district judges within the jurisdiction of the United States Fifth Circuit. Recently, he was appointed by then Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Carl Stewart to chair the Circuit’s Judicial Impairment Protocol Committee, established to create a framework for the judiciary to internally address disabilities of all types which may impact a judge’s ability to handle their docket. In 2019, Judge Engelhardt was elected to membership in The American Law Institute, and he has been a member of the American Bar Association, Jefferson Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, and the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Cancer Association of Greater New Orleans.
Judge Engelhardt was appointed to serve as a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Donald Trump in May of 2018. He was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 2001, and became chief judge of that court in 2015, serving until his appointment to the Fifth Circuit. Prior to being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Engelhardt was a partner with the law firm Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale in Metairie.
