Bartlett Kicks Off Seventh Year Co-Teaching Tulane Law’s Coastal & Wetlands Seminar with Special Guest Presentation

Partner Tad Bartlett’s Coastal and Wetlands Law spring seminar at Tulane University Law School began with a guest presentation from Fishman Haygood special counsel John Bel Edwards. The course, which changes annually in accordance with updates to the law, provides students with an examination of the factual, legal, and policy framework that has developed regarding a wide range of issues unique to wetland and coastal areas. Now in its seventh year, the weekly course is led by Tad and co-instructors Christopher Dalbom (Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy) and Bessie Daschbach (Center for Asset Retirement and Accountability).

While the seminar focuses on Louisiana’s quickly disappearing wetlands, the class also examines issues of public access, private rights, and governmental responsibility in other regions of the United States, as well as internationally. In addition, while the initial focus of the class had been on paths to address response to and restoration from the effects of the old energy economy on coastal lands, it now includes a hefty component of policy responses to plan and transition into the new energy economy as it is playing out on the coast.

The topic is one familiar to the former Louisiana governor. During his two terms in office, John Bel spearheaded initiatives like the Gulf South’s only statewide climate action plan and the 2017 unanimous passage of the Louisiana Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. From 2021-2023, he chaired the Outer Continental Shelf Governor’s Coalition, a group dedicated not only to improving the understanding of potential energy resources and related opportunities, but also to improving the management and stewardship of such coastal systems.

During class, John Bel led a robust discussion with the students and instructors regarding the strategies for effective climate and environmental policy-formation in a divided political atmosphere. After presenting the structure of the process for forming an all-stakeholders climate action plan, he and the class discussed navigating political realities and what trade-offs may or may not be required to achieve optimum short- and long-term results in coastal preservation and economic development.

Tad graduated from Tulane Law and first practiced under the Louisiana student practice rule as a member of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, which represents community organizations in environmental issues like pollution discharges, wetlands protection, and urban zoning. Later in his career, he was an integral part of a multi-firm team that developed the coastal litigation practice regarding land-loss on behalf of both landowners and governmental entities.

Now, Tad, along with his co-faculty, charges the next generation of lawyers at his alma mater with investigating large-scale coastal-related problems and evaluating either potential legal causes of action or policy changes to address the problems they identify. Ultimately, their students must demonstrate an understanding of the greater policy implications involved in creating efficacious legal remedies for their chosen issue, lessons that will influence how they will help navigate ongoing (and future) environmental threats.

Fishman Haygood attorneys regularly lend their expertise to scholarship and teaching of continuing developments in the law. Read more about their civic engagement here.