Barbier selected as Southeastern Alumnus of the Year
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
by: Tonya Lowentritt 
ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR – Southeastern Louisiana University has selected the Hon. Carl J. Barbier, a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, as the Southeastern Alumni Association 2022 Alumnus of the Year. Barbier will be honored this fall at the Alumni Association’s annual awards evening held on campus as part of Southeastern’s Homecoming Week.
HAMMOND –A judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Louisiana in New Orleans has been selected as the Southeastern Louisiana University
Alumni Association 2022 Alumnus of the Year. The Hon. Carl J. Barbier, a 1966 graduate
of Southeastern, will be honored at the Alumni Association’s annual awards evening
Friday, Oct. 7, during Homecoming Week.
A New Orleans native, Barbier was nominated by President Bill Clinton in April
1998 and sworn into office on Oct. 12, 1998.
“Judge Barbier is well respected in the legal community, a brilliant and accomplished
judge who has had an exceptionally dynamic legal career,” said Executive Director
of Alumni Relations Michelle Biggs. “He has been so supportive of the university that
the Awards Committee felt very strongly he deserves this honor.”
Barbier is a past president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, now the
Louisiana Association for Justice; past president of the New Orleans Bar Association,
and past president of the Thomas More Loyola Inn of Court. He has served on the board
of the Federal Bar Association.
As a federal judge, Barbier has handled a number of large, complex cases, including
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation that involved tens of thousands of cases
arising from the largest oil spill in the history of the United States.
Barbier served for seven years as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee
on Defender Services, which oversees the operation and budgets for all the Federal
Public Defender Offices in the United States. He previously served as a member of
the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council. He also serves on the Judicial Advisory Board
for the Emory Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims.
Honors for Barbier include the “Thomas Jefferson Justice by the People Award,”
presented by the American Board of Trial Advocates; the “St. Ives Award” as the Loyola
Law Alumnus of the Year; and the “Distinguished Jurist” award, presented by the Louisiana
Bar Foundation.
