Carl L. Barbier is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Judge Barbier was nominated by President Bill Clinton in April 1998, confirmed by the United States Senate on September 28, 1998 and sworn into office on October 12, 1998.
Judge Barbier was born in 1944 in New Orleans, raised on the west bank of Jefferson Parish and graduated in 1962 from West Jefferson High School, where he was President of the Student Council.
After studying journalism and public relations for one semester as an undergraduate at Loyola University in New Orleans, Judge Barbier transferred to Southeastern Louisiana University on an athletic scholarship. Upon graduation with a degree in business and accounting, Judge Barbier enrolled in Loyola Law School's evening division. While attending law school at night, Judge Barbier worked full time during the day, first as a high school teacher, then as an accountant and, during his fourth year of law school, as a law clerk to Judge William Redmann on the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.
After graduating from law school with honors and serving as an associate editor of the law review, Judge Barbier served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Fred Cassibry.
Following his clerkship, Judge Barbier was a practicing attorney in New Orleans from 1971 until his appointment to the federal bench in 1998. His practice primarily included representing plaintiffs, consumers and small businesses in civil litigation, both in state and federal courts. Judge Barbier also served as special counsel to the Committee on Bar Admissions and the Committee on Professional Conduct. While engaged in private practice, Judge Barbier served a four year term as a member of the Louisiana Insurance Rating Commission.
Judge Barbier is a past president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association (now the Louisiana Association for Justice); past president of the New Orleans Bar Association; and past president of the Thomas More Loyola Inn of Court. He currently serves on the board of the Federal Bar Association.
Judge Barbier has served on the board of the Loyola Law Alumni Association for the past eighteen years. Judge Barbier has served as an adjunct faculty member for Loyola's law school, teaching for several years a course in Trial Advocacy in his courtroom. More recently, he taught a course in Comparative Maritime Law for Loyola's summer law school program. In addition, Judge Barbier has taught hundreds of legal educational programs, including skills courses at the law school.
As a federal judge, Judge Barbier has handled a number of large, complex cases including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, involving tens of thousands of cases arising from the largest oil spill in the history of the United States.
Judge Barbier served for seven years as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services, which oversees the operation and budgets for all of the Federal Public Defender Offices in the United States. He currently serves as a member of the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council. Judge Barbier also serves on the Judicial Advisory Board for the Emory Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims.
In 2016, Judge Barbier was the recipient of the “œThomas Jefferson Justice by the People Award”, presented by the American Board of Trial Advocates.