Bernette Joshua Johnson

Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson (Ret.) served as a justice on Louisiana’s highest court for 26 years, and held the chief justice role from 2013 through 2020. Justice Johnson graduated from Spelman College. During the 1960s, she worked as a community organizer with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense & Educational Fund on school desegregation and at the U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division). In 1969, she became one of the first Black woman to graduate from Paul Herbert Law School at Louisiana State University. Following law school, she worked as the Managing Attorney with the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, where she delivered legal services to over three thousand clients in socio-economically deprived neighborhoods. In 1984, the people of New Orleans elected her to the Orleans Parish Civil District Court. She was the first woman to serve on that court. In 1994, she was elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Justice Johnson worked to reform Louisiana’s criminal system as a member of the Justice Reinvestment taskforce. She serves as of counsel at PJI.