Bartlett Marks Sixth Year Teaching Coastal and Wetlands Law at Tulane University Law School

Attorney Tad Bartlett, special counsel in Fishman Haygood’s Environmental Section and head of the firm’s Appellate Section, is once again co-teaching the Coastal and Wetlands Law course at Tulane University Law School. The weekly course is offered during the spring semester, and this marks the sixth year that Bartlett and co-instructors Christopher Dalbom (Tulane Institute on Water, Law, and Policy) and Bessie Daschbach (Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP) are leading the class.

The course, which changes annually in accordance with updates to the law, provides an examination of the factual, legal, and policy framework that has developed regarding issues of wetland and coastal land loss. While the focus is on the quickly disappearing wetlands in Louisiana, the class also examines issues of public access, private rights, and governmental responsibility in other regions of the United States, as well as internationally.

Bartlett, who graduated from Tulane University Law School, 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.

Now, Bartlett charges his students with investigating and evaluating a large-scale coastal-related problem and either potential legal causes of action or policy changes to address that problem.

“I was drawn to Tulane and to the Environmental Law Clinic as a law student specifically because of the strength of the environmental law program, but my time there also instilled in me a deep appreciation for the significant coastal challenges facing Louisiana,” said Bartlett. “It’s exciting—and encouraging—to see the next generation of lawyers begin thinking about how they will help navigate these ongoing environmental threats. It’s even more gratifying to see my students become strong and impassioned attorneys, several of whom I now get to work alongside in coastal litigation.”

Ultimately, students in Bartlett’s class must demonstrate an understanding of the greater policy implications involved in creating efficacious legal remedies for their chosen issue.

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