Term Ends: 2024
Party: R
Having been elected without opposition, Scott Crichton is serving his sixth year as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Scott is co-chair of the Louisiana Judicial College and serves on the Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics, its Internal Audit Committee and the judiciary’s Human Resources Committee.
Scott is on the adjunct faculty of Tulane Law School where, in alternate semesters, he teaches Contemporary Issues in Legal Ethics (a subject in which he has just co-published a first-of-its-kind course book) and Advanced Appellate Advocacy. He is also a member of the teaching faculty for the LSU Law Center Trial Advocacy Program and serves on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Center for Law and Civic Education. Scott recently co-authored an article in Louisiana Law Review, Appealing Standards: Louisiana’s Constitutional Provision Governing Appellate Review of Criminal Facts, 79 La. L. Rev. 360 (2018).
Prior to his election to the Supreme Court, Scott served 24 years as a judge with the First Judicial District Court (Shreveport/Caddo Parish), presiding in both the civil and criminal divisions.
Scott is a past president of the Louisiana District Judges Association, a past member of the Advisory Committee to the Supreme Court on Revision of the Judicial Canons, the Louisiana Judicial College Board of Governors, and the Criminal Best Practices Committee. He has served numerous terms as chair or co-chair of the Shreveport Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Committee and has served on the CLE Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association. Scott is certified by the National Judicial College in program design and during the last 28 years has taught nearly 200 CLE hours to lawyers and judges. He is also a graduate of the inaugural class of the Louisiana Judicial Leadership Institute. From 2007 to 2014, on a regular basis, Scott hosted an educational program for teenagers at various north Louisiana high schools on the law, choices, and consequences.
Scott grew in Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana. In 1968, at the age of 14, he enrolled as a boarding student at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Scott completed North Carolina Outward Bound School (1971); graduated from The Webb School (1972); Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (Bachelor of Science, 1976); and Paul M. Hebert LSU Law Center (Juris Doctor, 1980). During the 1980s, he served as an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, maintained a civil litigation practice, and served on the adjunct faculty of LSU-Shreveport, where he taught Business Law.
Scott is a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Shreveport, where he served on the vestry; he is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Webb School, where he serves on the Governance Committee and, on an ad hoc basis, the Executive as well as the Student Affairs committees. In 2017, he was inducted into its Distinguished Alumni Society.
Scott credits his parents, Tom and Mary, with instilling the virtues of humility, education, and a commitment of service to others, all of which have guided him throughout life. Scott, age 65, and his wife, Susie, share time in Webster Parish and New Orleans. They have two sons – both of whom are lawyers.