Stephen J. Herman

Steve Herman is special counsel in the firm’s Litigation Section. With thirty years of experience, his primary practice focus recently has been on representing both plaintiffs and defendants in commercial, class action, and professional liability cases. Steve also is often asked to provide expert testimony in such matters.

Steve maintains a broad civil practice. He has handled everything from highway defect and products liability cases to fire and flood loss cases, to attorney fee disputes and employment cases, to special appellate work before the Louisiana Supreme Court and other courts of appeal. Notably, in 2010 he was appointed by the Court to serve as one of two Liaison and Lead Class Counsel for all businesses, individuals, and local governments involved in the Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill litigation.

Steve also teaches an advanced torts seminar on class actions at Loyola Law School and an advanced civil procedure course in complex litigation at Tulane. He has given numerous speeches on consumer fraud, tobacco, maritime, and managed care litigation; complex discovery, electronic discovery, and spoliation; preemption, privilege, trial preparation, deposition strategy, motion practice, legal ethics and professionalism, class actions, and complex litigation. He is the author of America and the Law: Challenges for the 21st Century, and he maintains a What’s New in the Courts law blog (or “blawg”) at GravierHouse.com.

Steve serves as the President of the New Orleans Bar Association and is the Chair of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s (LSBA) Section on Class Action, Mass Tort, and Complex Litigation. He also currently serves on the standing LSBA Rules of Professional Conduct Committee and is a patron fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Steve is an active member of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), for which he has served on the Board of Governors since 2014. He is a fellow of both the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America. Steve also is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He served for six years as a Lawyer Chair for one of the Louisiana Disciplinary Board Hearing Committees and is a past president of the Louisiana Association for Justice (LAJ).

Steve is a former Louisiana Appleseed board member, a former Southeast Louisiana Legal Services board member, and a past president of both the National Civil Justice Institute (formerly the Pound Civil Justice Institute) and the Civil Justice Foundation.

In 2017, Steve was presented with the Stalwart Award, LAJ’s highest honor, and in 2018 he received the Harry Philo Award from the AAJ. He was named a finalist for the Public Justice (formerly the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice) Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2005. Steve also has been recognized by Best Lawyers®, Louisiana Super Lawyers, Lawdragon Top 500, National Law Journal Elite, Chambers USA, New Orleans Magazine Top Lawyers, and Who’s Who. Steve was named a New Orleans CityBusiness Leadership-in-the-Law (LiL) Recipient in 2010, 2017, and 2018 before being inducted into the Hall of Fame.