With the recent election of LSU Law graduates Piper Griffin (’87) and Jay McCallum (’85) to the Louisiana Supreme Court, LSU Law alumni will fill six of the seven seats on the state’s highest court.
The new justices are replacing fellow LSU Law alumni on the bench. Griffin will fill the Seventh District seat being vacated by Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson (’69), while McCallum will fill the Fourth District seat vacated by Harmon Drew (’71).
Griffin spent 14 years in civil practice before serving as chief judge of the Civil District Court as its Finance Committee chair, Disaster Recovery Committee chair, and Technology chair. McCallum served as a Third Judicial District judge from 2003 to 2018, when he joined the bench at the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. Prior to being elected judge, he served as an assistant district attorney for the Third Judicial District and as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 2002.
The election of Griffin and McCallum comes a year after LSU Law alumni William Crain (’86) was elected to the First District seat of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Prior to his election, Crain was a member of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal since 2013.
The seven Louisiana Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms. Other LSU Law alumni on the bench are:
Scott Crichton (’86), who was elected to the Second District seat in 2014, and previously served 24 years as a judge with the First Judicial District Court, presiding in both the civil and criminal divisions. During the 1980s, he served as an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, maintained a civil litigation practice, and served on the adjunct faculty of LSU-Shreveport.
Jeff Hughes III (’78), who was elected to the Fifth District seat in 2012. He was in private practice for 12 years before being elected to the 21st Judicial District court in 1990, where he served for 14 years. In 2004 he was elected to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, where he served for eight years.
John Weimer (’80), who was elected to the Sixth District seat in 2001, 2002, and 2012. Prior to his election, Weimer had served on Louisiana’s First Circuit Court of Appeal since 1998, and was previously a Division A judge at the 17th Judicial District Court.
James Genovese, who was elected to the Third District seat in 2016, is the only Louisiana Supreme Court justice who is not an LSU Law alumni. He graduated from Loyal University New Orleans College of Law in 1974.
