President Biden’s nomination of attorney Darrel Papillion to the federal bench in the Eastern District of Louisiana was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last month on a vote of 59-31, with both of the state’s U.S. senators supporting Papillion.
Under current Senate practices, court nominees need to gain the support of a state’s two U.S. senators before nominees to positions within the state can be confirmed.
“Darrel Papillion has the experience and temperament to be a good federal judge,” Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record. “This is to say, whoever comes before his court will be treated fairly by a judge who fully understands the law.”
Papillion is a former president of the Louisiana State Bar Association. A graduate of Louisiana State University Law Center in 1994, the attorney has also served as an adjunct law professor for almost 15 years and is a fellow for the American College for Trial Lawyers. Papillion previously served as a partner in a Baton Rouge law firm.
He has handled 33 cases in state and federal courts that ended up with verdicts and is what some observers would call a “lawyer’s lawyer,” meaning that he’s among a small tier of attorneys whom other attorneys hire if they need a lawyer, according to Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy.
““Darrel is not a politician …” Kennedy said during the Senate confirmation hearings. “He's not an activist. He's a lawyer. He understands the magistery, the complexity, the nuances, the utility, the beauty of the law.”
In response to a questionnaire from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina), Papillion said his judicial philosophy would be to approach all cases with humility.
“My role would be to call balls and strikes and not color outside the lines,” the attorney said. He also indicated that he would apply precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth District Court of Appeals and treat those who come before him “equally and with dignity and respect.”