Take the Fifth was started by Tad Bartlett as a way to capture the quickly and constantly evolving jurisprudence coming out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and to provide that same information to other attorneys and those with an interest in these developments. When Tad joined the team of attorneys at Fishman Haygood LLP, he split the Take the Fifth blog out from his prior practice’s website into this free-standing blog.
Tad began his legal practice under Louisiana’s student practice rule as a member of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic in 1999-2000, before becoming a full member of the Louisiana bar in 2000. Tad was a judicial clerk for Hon. James L. Dennis of the U.S. Fifth Circuit in 2000-2001. Prior to that, while at Tulane Law School he had interned for Judge Dennis and had served in a year-long position as a research assistant to Judge Dennis and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a class on comparative human rights law they taught during Tulane Law School’s summer program. Tad has since developed an appellate practice as he moved through several New Orleans-based law firms, and is proud to be working with the appellate practice group at Fishman Haygood. Tad has been on the adjunct faculty at Tulane Law School since 2019, teaching a seminar in coastal law litigation and policy with Bessie Daschbach and Chris Dalbom.
Fishman Haygood’s attorneys include many former Fifth Circuit clerks, with attorneys who have clerked for Hon. John Minor Wisdom, Hon. John Duhé, Hon. James Dennis, Hon. Jerry Smith, and Hon. Edith Clement. The attorneys at Fishman Haygood practice regularly in front of the U.S. 5th Circuit, as well as other federal and state appellate courts, and maintain a continuing and strong interest in the complexities of developing dynamics within the courts, as well as the substantive development of the law through appellate jurisprudence.