About Bernette Joshua Johnson

Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson was elected to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1994, and was re-elected, without opposition, in 2000. In 2013, she became the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.  Chief Justice Johnson retired in December, 2020. 

Chief Justice Johnson attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on an academic scholarship, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Spelman College at commencement services in April, 2001. She was one of the first African-American women to attend the Law School at Louisiana State University, where she received her Juris Doctorate degree in 1969. She was honored by her law school in 1996, when her portrait was unveiled and she was inducted into the LSU Law Center’s Hall of Fame.

 Chief Justice Johnson began her judicial career began in 1984, when she was elected to the Civil District Court of New Orleans and was the first woman to hold that office. She was re-elected without opposition in 1990 and was elected Chief Judge by her colleagues in 1994. 

 As a civil trial judge, she was first assigned to Domestic Relations Court, where she established a system to refer custody, alimony, and child support issues to mediation conducted by certified social workers of the Children’s Bureau and Family Services, prior to court appearances. For much of her life, Chief Justice Johnson has worked as an advocate for social justice, civil rights, and community organizing. During the 1960’s, she worked as a community organizer with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Legal Defense & Educational Fund. While a law student, Chief Justice Johnson worked as a Law Intern with the U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division) Washington, D.C. She worked on cases filed by the Department to implement the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

 After receiving her Juris Doctorate Degree from Louisiana State University Law School, Chief Justice Johnson became the Managing Attorney with the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, where she delivered legal services to over three thousand (3,000) clients in socio-economically deprived neighborhoods. As a civil litigator, she worked in the Federal and State District Courts, and Juvenile Court advancing the rights of children, the poor, the elderly, and the disenfranchised.

 Chief Justice Johnson has served as an Adjunct Faculty at Tulane University Law School and at Southern University, New Orleans. Chief Justice Johnson is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2009 Distinguished Jurist Award presented by the Louisiana Bar Foundation, and the Louisiana Bar Association President’s Award for Exceptional Service as co-chair of the Task Force on Diversity in the Profession; the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society President’s Award in 1997 and 2008; the 1999 Martin Luther King, Jr. Torch Bearer Award; and the 1998 American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.

 Chief Justice Johnson is a member of the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church.