Haley Grieshaber
Metairie, Louisiana
- Juris Doctor, Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law
- cum laude graduate
- Paul M. Hebert Scholar
- Dean’s Scholar
- 2024 Spring Ira S. Flory Competition winner
- 2022 Robert Lee Tullis Moot Court Competition winner
- Board of Advocates Board Member
- Undergraduate: LSU, Bachelor of Arts, Political Science
What are your immediate career plans?
After taking the bar, I will start as an associate at Gieger, Laborde, and Laperouse in New Orleans. There, I’ll have the opportunity to work civil litigation and appeals in a diverse set of practice areas under some of the most competent and passionate attorneys I have had the honor to meet.
What are your long-term career aspirations?
Long term, I always intended to practice law for a number of years before using my legal education and practice experience to reform the criminal justice system in Louisiana. Before law school, I completed my master’s in public policy from Georgetown University with the intention of returning to my home state to learn the practice of law. I want to do more than represent Louisianans as their attorney; I want to address the issues in our justice system from a policy level to prevent them from needing one. Louisiana does its residents a disservice with its arcane approach to incarceration, and I want to be a part of bringing justice back to my community.
Please tell us about the organizations and activities you participated in at LSU Law, including any awards or honors you received.
At LSU Law, I was a member of Louisiana Law Review, Volume 84, where I wrote a student comment on the constitutionality (or lack thereof) of Louisiana’s chemical castration laws. In terms of academics, I graduated in the top 25% of my class, earning the academic honor of cum laude.
As to activities, I found advocacy to be the most fulfilling experience and spent the majority of my time competing. In the fall of my 2L year, I won LSU Law’s appellate competition (the Robert Lee Tullis Moot Court Competition) where my partner and I argued a fictional case for an incarcerated individual subjected to unconstitutional conditions in the Louisiana state prison system during the coronavirus pandemic. Then, I took my appellate skillset outside Louisiana by representing LSU Law on the National Moot Court Competition team where we traveled across the country to compete against other schools in our region. My first year on the team, I argued the interpretation of the Communications Decency Act and how artificial intelligence tools should be held liable for the damage they cause. That year, we advanced to nationals in New York to go head to head with the best teams across the nation. My second year with NMCC, our team won LSU Law the recognition of “best brief” in the competition, arguing issues of personal jurisdiction and the securities act. Appellate work prepared me for the actual practice of law because I learned so much about legal research and crafting arguments, but I wanted to broaden my experience with the legal system and challenge myself to a new setting: trial. Over the course of my time at LSU Law, I competed in three mock trial competitions, where my partner and I prepared a full case including opening statements, direct and cross examinations, preparing witnesses, and objecting at trial in real time. In the spring of my 3L year, I was proud to win LSU’s trial advocacy competition (the Ira S. Flory Mock Trial Competition), where we built a case defending against a civil claim of medical malpractice.
Aside from competing, I was also an active member in a number of student organizations—the Board of Advocates, the Women’s Law Student Association (WLSA), and OUTLaw. On the Board of Advocates, I was able to help run the advocacy program at LSU Law for other students by hosting a workshop to prepare students competing in the Tullis Moot Court competition, judging and coaching four of LSU Law’s other external competition teams, volunteering for undergraduate moot court competitions as a chief justice, and overseeing 1L oral arguments in preparation for their final graded argument for their Legal Research and Writing course.
Please tell us about any LSU Law faculty, classes, or other experiences that were particularly impactful on your legal education.
The class that was the most impactful for me was, hands down, the Juvenile Justice Clinic with Professor Jack Harrison and Lakita Leonard. There, I had the opportunity to represent my first real client under the supervision of two exceptional attorneys and write a writ that was submitted to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Professor (Jack) Harrison was not only a dedicated and effective professor but he also modeled what it means to be an incredibly impressive advocate.
His approach to teaching managed to be informative and thorough while still hands-off enough to encourage students to lead ourselves into the courtroom. Under his and Lakita’s supervision, I made court appearances, watched body camera footage, prepared for hearings, studied legal documents, filed motions with the court, and zealously represented my client through the end of his case. Seeing the justice system process from beginning to end and being the lead student-attorney on a case was so impactful. Further, the opportunity to write a writ for the Louisiana Supreme Court is one not many attorneys get in their lifetime, and Professor Harrison saw my work and entrusted a writ to me as a student. I was honored to have the opportunity and worked tirelessly on it to ensure it was something I and LSU Law could be proud of.
Lastly, I want to highlight Professor Caprice Roberts as one of the most impactful professors I had in law school. Law school was an incredibly rough start for me, and I often wondered if I was in the right place, but Professor Roberts made me fall in love with the law again. Her passion for the material she teaches is truly inspiring, and how she manages to make courses like Federal Courts, Remedies, and the First Amendment so engaging will always be a mystery. Her passion is second only to her brilliance, which offered a deep understanding of the material and pushed us every day to not only learn the law but understand why and how and whether it should be what it is.
What are your fondest memories from your time at LSU Law?
My fondest memories at LSU Law come from my time with the National Moot Court Competition team. The coaching and mentorship I received there was the first time I felt seen for the work I did and what I had to offer. Professor Devlin and our brilliant coach Danny Bosch (’20) spent weeks with us—parsing out niche legal topics, running arguments with us, and questioning everything we prepared, and I valued every piece of counsel they offered. But I would be remiss if I did not also express how much I learned from the upperclassmen on the team when I first joined. Scott Wheat, Jr. (’23) and Olivia Maynard (’23) had miles more experience than I did and were able to understand intricacies about the law that I was just beginning to learn, fresh off of my 1L year. They took the time to mentor me, encourage me, teach me, and become some of my closest friends. The late nights we spent poring over legal documents, the frantic phone calls to work out an argument, and the unhinged group text messages are some of my fondest memories. I will always be grateful to NMCC for the professional skills I developed, but also the relationships I found there (including my fellow Order of the Barrister’s inductee, Foster Willie, who made my second year on the team just as memorable).
What advice would you give to students entering law school who aspire to become Order of the Barristers members when they graduate?
Advocacy is the single best experience you can have in law school that actually prepares you to be an attorney. But know that winning is completely arbitrary. Every time you prepare for an oral argument or walk into a courtroom, be primed to argue against the best, most prepared attorneys you have ever seen. Never underestimate that someone else may be preparing just as hard or harder than you and use that as a reminder to keep working. Take the opportunity to learn from every single advocacy experience, especially your losses, and you will be incredible by the time you enter the actual practice of law. The takeaway from participating in advocacy should be knowing that you are more prepared than any of your peers to walk into a courtroom, not to “win.”
