Mathilde V. Semmes

Mathilde Villere Semmes practices in products liability and toxic tort litigation, with additional experience in the areas of general liability, insurance, and criminal defense, as well as appellate advocacy. She works with corporate clients in all phases of the litigation process including initial case assessment, discovery, motion practice, expert workup, fact and expert witness depositions, trial preparation and trial. She is responsible for drafting and arguing discovery and pre-trial motions in both state and federal court. Mathilde recently achieved successful summary judgment rulings on a client’s behalf before the Eastern District of Louisiana (2021) as part of her toxic tort practice. She has been chosen as a “Rising Star” Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters for 2020-2023.

Mathilde is admitted to the Louisiana State Bar (October 2014) and Tennessee State Bar (May 2021). She is licensed to practice in Louisiana and Tennessee State Courts, the Middle and Eastern Districts of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Courts of Appeal. She is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association, the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, the Tennessee Bar Association, the Nashville Bar Association, and the Defense Research Institute (DRI). Mathilde is a graduate of Rhodes College (B.A., cum laude, 2010) and Loyola University College of Law (J.D., 2014), where she was admitted into the Order of the Barristers, a member of the Maritime Law Journal, and an oralist and coach for various Moot Court competitions. She was named a finalist for the Frank L. Maraist Award of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel in 2017.

Mathilde also has a history of working with pro bono organizations. She currently represents minors in Immigration Law cases as part of her practice in Tennessee. She was awarded “Law Student of the Year” by The Pro-Bono Project New Orleans, received the Gillis Long Poverty Center’s “Public Service Award”, and practiced as a student practitioner in the Community Justice Law Clinic while in law school.