Loulan Pitre Jr.

Loulan J. Pitre Jr. (born December 1961)^[1] is a lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana, who focuses his work on project development, construction, and operations in the Louisiana coastal zone. His law practice concentrates on various aspects of doing business in and protecting the vulnerable environment of Louisiana’s working coast, including entity formation and governance, complex land rights issues, construction procurement and management, environmental and coastal permitting issues, and dispute resolution. He was educated at Harvard University (A.B. magna cum laude, 1983) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1986). He is Partner in Charge of Kelly Hart Pitre, the Louisiana offices of the Kelly Hart law firm. In addition to his legal practice, Pitre is a part-time faculty member at the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. He has extensive legal publications.^[2] Pitre is a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 54 in his native Lafourche Parish, with one precinct as well in Jefferson Parish, in the southern portion of his state.^[3]

He has represented oil and gas and other industrial companies, real estate developers, financial institutions, ports, levee districts and other public entities, and players in the construction and service industries such as contractors, engineers, and material suppliers. While serving as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008, he was intimately involved in the development of the state’s coastal restoration and protection program and large transportation infrastructure projects such as the elevated highway to Port Fourchon. He has carried that knowledge and experience into his law practice.

Mr. Pitre has wide experience with the major federal environmental statutes, and in particular the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Oil Pollution Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and their Louisiana counterparts. Mr. Pitre is very familiar with the Louisiana law concerning public and private finance, procurement, and contracting. His experience includes traditional finance and procurement methods for both public and private projects, such as bidding and requests for proposals, as well as more innovative methods such as public private partnerships, securitization, and toll bonds. He is ranked in Chambers, BestLawyers, and SuperLawyers, and is a frequent speaker and writer. He is an experienced negotiator and is trained in both arbitration and mediation. He teaches International Oil & Gas Law as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Tulane Law School.

Mr. Pitre is also extremely well known for his practice in legacy litigation in which landowners and public entities sue oil and gas companies alleging environmental damage from oil and gas exploration and production operations. These cases often involve claims in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As lead trial counsel in Meaux et al. v. Hilcorp et al., he defended two oil and gas exploration and production companies from claims of environmental damage. After a three-week trial, plaintiffs asked the jury for over $60 million dollars. Instead, the jury’s verdict resulted in no liability for defendants, a result that withstood appeal.

Mr. Pitre grew up in Cut Off in southern Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, which has grown in the past century from a collection of small Cajun French fishing villages to the central hub of the Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil and gas industry at Port Fourchon. Thus, from an early age he has understood the intricate challenges of living and working on the Louisiana coast. At South Lafourche High School, Mr. Pitre was a National Merit Scholar, a Presidential Scholar (one of 121 nationwide), and a Telluride Association Summer Program Scholar (one of 20 nationwide). He then spent seven years at Harvard, where he earned his bachelor and law degrees and numerous honors. He wrote his Harvard College magna cum laude honors thesis about a 19th century village on the Louisiana coast and his Harvard Law School senior paper about aspects of the Louisiana Constitution. He then returned to Louisiana, ultimately serving his home town as attorney to the Greater Lafourche Port Commission during a period of explosive expansion and as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Background[]

Pitre is the youngest of four sons born in Cut Off on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, to Loulan Pitre Sr. (1921–2010), and the former Emelia Chabert (1925-2021). The senior Pitre fought in many Pacific battles in World War II, including Iwo Jima. He was present too at the V-J Day Japanese surrender. He was a fisherman and boat captain but relished his other roles as an actor and a debater who went out of his way to stir up controversy. He even gave acting tips to Robert Duvall in the 1986 film, Belizaire the Cajun, in which Duval played a preacher and Pitre a sheriff.^[4] The picture was written and directed by Glen Pitre,^[5] the son of Loulan Sr., and an older brother of Loulan Jr. Loulan's other two brothers, Holland and Wayne, are physicians who specialized in dermatology.^[4]

Loulan Pitre Jr. attended the highly selective Telluride Association Summer Program in 1978 and was selected as a Presidential Scholar in 1979, one of 121 nationwide. He was also a National Merit Scholar and is an Eagle Scout. He graduated from South Lafourche High School in 1979.

Pitre Jr. was educated at both Harvard University (A.B. magna cum laude, 1983) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1986) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[2] At Harvard College, Pitre served as Co-Chair of Dunster House's House Committee, its student governing body. While in law school, Pitre was selected for a judicial clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by the late Judge Albert Tate Jr., but Judge Tate died before the term of the clerkship. Pitre's Harvard Law School classmates elected him permanent Class Secretary, and he gave the Class Address at Commencement. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Alumni Association and as President of the Harvard Club of Louisiana.

Legislative elections[]

Pitre served in the Louisiana House of Representatives during the second administration of Republican Governor Murphy J. Foster Jr., and the following term of Democrat Kathleen Blanco. His policy focus was coastal protection and restoration and related infrastructure issues. He was elected to the House in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 23, 1999, when he narrowly unseated the Democratic incumbent , who later switched to the Republican Party. Pitre polled 7,187 votes (51.5 percent) to Theriot's 6,768 (48.5 percent).^[6] In 2003, Pitre again defeated Theriot by nearly the same totals as he had in 1999, 7,618 (52 percent) to 7,035 (48 percent).^[7]

Pitre declined to seek a third term in 2007, and Democrat of Larose, a businessman and radio station broadcaster, defeated Theriot, who ran as a Republican, by 121 votes in still another narrow race in the highly competitive district.^[8]

As Pitre completed his eight years in the legislature, the Governor-Elect appointed Loulan as Chair of the Transition Advisory Group on Coastal Restoration and Flood Control. Shortly after Pitre left the state House in 2008, he changed his voter registration to Independent.^[1]

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