Steve Herman was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he attended Isidore Newman School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, where he was awarded Citations of Excellence in the study of Milton and Shakespeare, and won the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Competition with his one-act play, The Phoenix Sleeps Tonight. Herman was then named Order of the Coif at Tulane Law School, where he graduated, Magna Cum Laude, in 1994.
After graduating from Tulane, Herman clerked for Justice Harry T. Lemmon of the Louisiana Supreme Court, before practicing for over 30 years in the family firm. He now practices as Special Counsel with Fishman Haygood, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Developing a broad civil practice, Herman has handled everything from highway defect and products liability cases, to fire and flood loss cases, to whistleblower and employment benefits cases, to special appellate work before the Louisiana Supreme Court and other courts of appeal. In 2010, he was appointed by the Court to serve as one of two Liaison and Lead Class Counsel for all businesses, individuals and local governments involved in the Deepwater Horizon / BP Oil Spill litigation. In recent years, he has primarily focused on representing plaintiffs and defendants in commercial, class action, and other complex litigation, while also serving as an expert in professional liability matters, settlement and fee approval, and attorneys’ fee disputes.
An adjunct professor teaching complex litigation at both Tulane and Loyola Law Schools, Mr. Herman is a member of the American Law Institute, and has given numerous speeches on consumer fraud, tobacco, maritime, and managed care litigation; complex discovery, electronic discovery, and spoliation; preemption, privilege, trial preparation, deposition strategy, motion practice, legal ethics and professionalism, class actions, and complex litigation.
He is a former Southeast Louisiana Legal Services board member, a former Louisiana Appleseed Board Member, and a past president of both the National Civil Justice Institute (formerly Pound) and the Civil Justice Foundation. Having spent six years as a Lawyer Chair on one of the Hearing Committees appointed by the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, Herman currently serves on the standing Professional Rules Committee for the Louisiana State Bar Association, as well as the Chair of the LSBA Section on Class Actions, Mass Torts, and Complex Litigation.
A fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America, Herman is a past president of the Louisiana Association for Justice, the current President of the New Orleans Bar Association, and sits on the boards of the American Association for Justice, the National College of Advocacy, the Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans Chapter, and the Public Justice Foundation. He has been named in Best Lawyers, Louisiana SuperLawyers, Lawdragon Top 500, National Law Journal Elite, Chambers USA, Who’s Who, was a N.O. City Business Leadership-in-the-Law Recipient in 2010, 2017 and 2018 (Hall of Fame inductee), and was a Finalist for TLPJ Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2005. In 2017, Herman was presented with the Stalwart Award, LAJ’s highest honor, and in 2018 received the Harry Philo Award from AAJ.
Herman maintains this website and “Blawg” for trial lawyers, with periodic updates on Class Actions, Product Liability Law, Legal Ethics and Professionalism, Spoliation and E-Discovery and ERISA Litigation, as well as a section For Trial Lawyers.
The author of America and the Law: Challenges for the 21st Century, his legal writings have been published in Winning Techniques of Successful Trial Attorneys, Tort Litigation, The Federal Lawyer, the Australian Products Liability Reporter, Sidebar, Louisiana Advocates, TRIAL Magazine, Loyola Law Review, Lewis & Clark Law Review, and the Tulane Law Review.
He has also published six works of fiction, The Gordian Knot, The Sign of Four, A Day in the Life of Timothy Stone, My Life as a Spy, Broken Lighthouse, and Shots Across the Bow.
