ALUMNI PRESIDENT

The Honorable Erin Leigh Waddell Garrett is a resident of Shreveport, Louisiana. She was

born and raised in Southern Hills, and graduated from Southwood High School in 1998.

She worked her way through college by waiting tables and tutoring disabled students,

and subsequently received a Bachelors of Arts, with a degree in psychology and minors

in English and history, from Louisiana Tech University in 2002. After graduation, she

taught school for a brief stint before moving to Baton Rouge to pursue her lifelong dream

of attending law school. In 2006, she graduated magna cum laude, receiving her Juris

Doctorate from Southern University Law Center (SULC), and was admitted to practice l

aw in Louisiana that same year. During law school, Judge Garrett was a member of the

American Inns of Court, Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association and she served as secretary

of Phi Alpha Delta for two years. She also worked at SULC, as a research assistant for

Dr. B.K. Agnihotri.

Post law school, Judge Garrett immediately began working, in New Orleans, as a law

clerk for Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero, Jr. During her time at the Louisiana Supreme

Court, she reported on a variety of cases, drafting briefs and opinions and working hand

in hand with Chief Justice Calogero. Toward the end of her clerkship, Judge Garrett decided to move back to her hometown of Shreveport to practice law. Upon her return, she worked as an associate attorney; first, for The Law Office of Katherine Clark Dorroh, and second, at the law firm of Simmons, Morris and Carroll. In December 2010, she opened her own legal practice in her father's old law office in Southern Hills. She primarily practiced in the areas of domestic, personal injury, criminal defense, successions and estate planning. Just a few months later, in July 2011, she was also hired as the mental health attorney for University Health (formerly known as Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center). She practiced law until December 2014, when she was elected as a Louisiana State District Court Judge. She is only the sixth female to be elected to the First Judicial District Court of Caddo Parish.

Judge Garrett has been an active member of the Louisiana State Bar Association as well as the Shreveport Bar Association (SBA). Over the years, she has served as the SBA Young Lawyers Section secretary (2009), treasurer (2010), vice president (2011) and president (2012), as well as the SBA Women's Section secretary (2008 and 2009). During the 2011 Mardi Gras season, she was elected to the court as duchess of the Krewe of Justinian and she has been a member of the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier since 2007. In 2011, she was recognized as one of the "Top 40 Under 40" professionals by the Shreveport/Bossier Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, SB Magazine noticed her as one of the Top Attorneys in Shreveport Bossier each year for the years 2007-2014. In April of 2016, Judge Garrett was inducted to the Southern University Law Center's Wall of Fame for her judicial accomplishment.

Judge Garrett is married to Greg Garrett, a Bastrop native, and the couple has three children: Auden (4), Granger (2) and Riggs (1 year).