Laurie White, who has served as a judge in Criminal District Court since 2007 says she has an extensive background that has prepared her to serve on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.
“I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years and a judge for nine,” she says. I have been a very busy trial court; and an appellate court is what reviews what goes on in a trial—both civil and criminal. I have an extensive criminal experience because I was a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney. I was also a city attorney for civil cases and a plaintiff’s attorney for civil cases. I have the full-range of experience. As a trial judge, I presided over close to 250 trials.”
Before her election to Criminal District Court, White managed her own law firm, Laurie A. White & Associates, L.L.C. She has worked in the New Orleans City Attorney’s office as an assistant city attorney and as an assistant district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish and Orleans Parish district attorney’s offices. The Southern University Law Center graduate also served as an associate with Lenfant & Associates.
White, who has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and the Alliance for Good Government, says that her judicial philosophy causes her to understand what individuals coming before her in criminal court face on a personal level.
“I want to know their criminal history, the education, whether they have a drug problem, because that helps me determine things like bail, treatment, whether they go into my re-entry or drug court programs. Whenever a judge has discretion, I like to look at the person I am dealing with.”
And she says her experience as a criminal trial judge is especially needed at the fourth circuit, where currently only one judge as criminal trial court experience.
“I think it’s extremely important to have a judge that understands how the processes are done,” she says.
