Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips LLP issued the following announcement on Oct. 14.
Taylor Porter Partner Preston Castille has been elected to the District 8 seat of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), following the results of the Oct. 12 primary election in Louisiana. BESE will set policies for hundreds of thousands of public schools statewide over the next four years. District 8 includes Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Tangipahoa and West Baton Rouge parishes.
The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is the administrative body for all Louisiana public elementary and secondary schools; it also performs certain administrative functions for the state's non-public elementary and secondary schools. BESE adopts regulations and enacts policies governing the operations of the schools under its jurisdiction, and exercises budgetary oversight of their educational programs and services.
Castille is a Partner and an Executive Committee member at Taylor Porter. He joined Taylor Porter in 1994 and is engaged primarily in business litigation and transactions. Prior to attending law school, Castille worked as an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. In addition to being an experienced litigator, Castille assists clients with matters in the Education and Energy sectors in the U.S. and abroad. Castille has been ranked for several years in Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Administrative Law and Insurance Law. Castille represents his law firm nationally and internationally as the firm’s representative in MSI Global Alliance, a network of more than 250 accounting and law firms in 100 countries. He was selected as an MSI Global North America Area Representative at the 2016 meeting in Paris, and began his service on the Management Board at the 2017 meeting in Tokyo.
In 2009, Castille was appointed Judge Pro Tempore by the Louisiana Supreme Court and has presided over hundreds of civil and criminal trials and hearings. He later returned to the full-time practice of law and periodically served as an ad hoc judge. In 2012, the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Castille to the Supreme Court’s District Court Rules Committee. Castille is an adjunct professor of law. He began his career as a law professor in 2001 at LSU Law School teaching Pretrial Litigation Practice and taught there for eight years. In 2003, he began teaching at Southern University Law Center and teaches Education Law & Policy, Evidence, Louisiana Civil Procedure I & II, and Trial Advocacy.
Castille served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association in 2011, and President of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society from 1998-2000. He served on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association from 2001-2004 and as a member of the House of Delegates from 2009-2012. He recently served as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and the Louisiana Law Institute, Louisiana’s premier legal think tank.
Castille is active in various education-related organizations. He served on Governor John Bel Edwards’ Education Transition Committee in 2015 and Mayor President Sharon Weston Broome’s Education Transition Team in 2016. He is the Immediate Past National President of the Southern University Alumni Federation and is a current member of the Tulane Law School Dean Advisory Board. He is Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Schools for Baton Rouge and Chairman of the Board for Helix Community Schools. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS).
Castille is Board Vice Chairman for the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and a member of the Board of Directors for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF). He formerly served on the Greater Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce Business Development Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Chamber’s 1997 Leadership class and was selected in 2000 by the Baton Rouge Business Report as one of Baton Rouge’s “Top Forty Under 40” community and business leaders. Castille is a member of the 2012 Louisiana Leadership class sponsored by Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL).
Castille received his Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law in 1994. He was a member of the Tulane Moot Court Board (1993-1994) and the Tulane National Environmental Law Moot Court Team (1992-1993). Upon graduation, Castille was selected to The Order of Barristers. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business (Economics) in 1990 from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge. As a student at Southern, he was elected by the Council of Student Body Presidents and appointed by Governor Edwin W. Edwards to serve as a member of the Louisiana Board of Regents for Higher Education. He also served as President of the Student Government Association. During the summer of 1986, Castille attended the Meharry Medical College Biomedical Sciences Program in Memphis, TN. Castille graduated Valedictorian of Plaisance High School in St. Landry Parish.
Preston is married to Marian Denise Caillier-Castille. Marian is a middle school math teacher. They have three children and attend St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Baton Rouge.
Original source can be found here.