Joel Waltzer is the founding partner of Waltzer Wiygul & Garside, a native New Orleanian and graduate of Boston University (magna cum laude) and Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk for Justice Calogero of the Louisiana Supreme Court and as a supervising attorney for the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic. For the past twenty years, he has chosen to fight for peoples and communities facing complex socio-economic challenges, including Vietnamese, Native Americans and commercial fishermen, and national, regional and local public interest advocacy groups. His expertise includes litigating environmental, civil rights, fisheries, maritime, insurance, emminent domain and personal injury cases. He received several awards recognizing work done relating to disaster response and environmental matters, including Tulane's Environmental Lawyer of the Year and was selected as a top 50 lawyer in New Orleans by GAMBIT Magazine and am peer rated "AV-Preemminent", the top preformance-ethical rating a lawyer can earn from his colleagues.