Katie Schwartzmann

Katie Schwartzmann returned to her alma mater in 2020 to serve as the First Amendment Law Clinic’s inaugural director.

A civil rights attorney with a dense catalog of courtroom work, Schwartzmann previously served as the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, overseeing a robust docket of cases challenging impingements on freedoms of speech, the press, religion, civil rights, and assembly. She led cases involving constitutional questions around the separation of church and state, discrimination, due process, unlawful search and seizure, police misconduct and cruel and unusual prison conditions. Under her leadership, the ACLU represented widely diverse voices across the political spectrum, including journalists, police officers, prisoners, librarians, protesters and activists.

Schwartzmann has also served as managing director of the Southern Poverty Law Center and was founding co-director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center in New Orleans. In both capacities, she leveraged class action cases to drive sweeping reforms in Louisiana regarding criminal and racial justice. Among her successes, she led the legal team that won a groundbreaking case in 2012 to advance fair treatment of detainees in the Orleans Parish Prison.