Preston Castille joined Taylor Porter in 1994 and was a Partner and member of the Executive Committee. He retired from the partnership in January 2020 and is currently Of Counsel with the firm. Mr. Castille is engaged primarily in education and business law. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Castille worked as an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. In October 2019, Mr. Castille was elected as the District 8 member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). BESE is the administrative body for all Louisiana public elementary and secondary schools.
Mr. Castille has been ranked for several years in Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Administrative Law and Insurance Law. Mr. Castille is the Taylor Porter representative in MSI Global Alliance, a network of more than 250 accounting and law firms in 100 countries. He also is an MSI Global Alliance Area Representative for the continent of North America and serves on the Management Board.
In 2009, Mr. Castille was appointed Judge Pro Tempore by the Louisiana Supreme Court and has presided over hundreds of civil and criminal trials and hearings. He later returned to the full-time practice of law and continued to serve as an ad hoc judge for many years. In 2012, the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Mr. Castille to the Supreme Court’s District Court Rules Committee.
Mr. Castille is an adjunct professor of law. He began his career as a law professor in 2001 at LSU Law School teaching Pretrial Litigation Practice and taught there for eight years. In 2003, he began teaching at Southern University Law Center and teaches Education Law, Evidence, Pretrial Litigation Practice, Trial Advocacy, Louisiana Civil Procedure I, and Louisiana Civil Procedure II. Mr. Castille served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association in 2011, and President of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society from 1998-2000. He served on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association from 2001-2004 and as a member of the House of Delegates from 2009-2012. He recently served as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and the Louisiana Law Institute.
Mr. Castille is active in various education-related organizations. He is the Immediate Past National President of the Southern University Alumni Federation and is a current member of the Tulane Law School Dean Advisory Board. Mr. Castille served on Governor John Bel Edwards’ Education Transition Committee in 2015. He is Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Schools for Baton Rouge and President of Helix Community Schools. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of Volunteers in Public Schools.
Mr. Castille is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX). Mr. Castille is a board member of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF), and he is a newly-appointed member of the Board of Governors of City Club of Baton Rouge. He formerly served on the Greater Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce Business Development Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Chamber’s 1997 Leadership class and was selected in 2000 by the Baton Rouge Business Report as one of Baton Rouge’s “Top Forty Under 40” community and business leaders. Mr. Castille is a member of the 2012 Louisiana Leadership class sponsored by Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL).
Mr. Castille received his Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law in 1994. He was a member of the Tulane Moot Court Board (1993-1994) and the Tulane National Environmental Law Moot Court Team (1992-1993). Upon graduation, Mr. Castille was selected to The Order of Barristers. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business (Economics) in 1990 from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge. As a student at Southern, he was elected by the Council of Student Body Presidents and appointed by Governor Edwin W. Edwards to serve as a member of the Louisiana Board of Regents for Higher Education. He also served as President of the Student Government Association.
