Chloé M. Chetta

Chloé M. Chetta is licensed in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. Her practice focuses on most types of complex and commercial litigation, with special emphasis on appellate issues.

Described by clients and colleagues as an indispensable teammate and by opposing counsel as a formidable adversary, Chloé serves as trial and embedded appellate counsel in judge and jury trials and in arbitration, and regularly handles state and federal appeals. She has been peer-selected for her commercial, insurance, and appellate work among "Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” and named among Louisiana Rising Stars. New Orleans CityBusiness magazine recognized Chloé as "One to Watch” and selected her for its Leadership in Law Class of 2022. The same year, the Louisiana State Bar Association named Chloé its Outstanding Younger Lawyer of the Year.

Her experience includes contract disputes, non-compete and antitrust issues, and other business litigation. She represents financial companies and advisors in employment and securities matters, including succession fights and other disputes and other asset disputes. She also handles high-value commercial insurance coverage and bad-faith cases. And Chloé particularly enjoys civil rights and other federal constitutional litigation.

Before joining the firm, Chloé served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen A. Higginson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable Sarah S. Vance of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

While in law school, Chloé worked as a research assistant for Professor A.N. Yiannopoulos, editing his fifth and final edition of the Louisiana Civil Law Treatise’s property law volume, and for Professor Gabriel Feldman, focusing primarily on federal antitrust and sports law issues. After graduation, Chloé served as a junior member of the Louisiana State Law Institute, an organization dedicated to improving Louisiana law to secure the better administration of justice.

• Persuaded the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to partly reverse a bench-trial judgment in favor of landowners pursuing millions in breach-of-contract damages against their former fiduciary and natural resources manager.
• Defended broker-dealer in wrongful termination dispute with a former advisor seeking over $3 million, leading arbitration panel to award the broker-dealer nearly half a million dollars instead.
• Represented pro bono a wrongfully convicted person in a civil rights suit against a local District Attorney, leading to a near-seven-figure settlement for the exonerated client.
• Represented energy company at the Louisiana Supreme Court on federal constitutional issues surrounding judicial recusals as they relate to campaign activities of publicly elected state-court judges, leading the Court to unanimously reverse the appellate court decision.
• Represented two insurance companies at the Mississippi Supreme Court on extraordinary interlocutory review, leading the Court to reverse on two complexes, but underdeveloped procedural issues of non-random case assignment and references to special masters under Mississippi law.
• Defended broker-dealer and financial advisor against conspiracy claims in multi-level succession, community property, and trust dispute over inherited IRA issues by obtaining pre-discovery dismissal of all claims.
• Defended a financial advisor against fiduciary-duty, contract, undue influence/elder abuse, and securities claims in a succession dispute by obtaining pre-discovery dismissal of all claims with prejudice.
• Obtained federal court temporary restraining order, without notice, preventing wrongful termination, bad-faith breach of contract, and defamation of a financial advisor against his former firm before negotiating a favorable resolution of all claims.
• Successfully defended on appeal district court ruling in commercial insurance tower dispute, leading appellate court to adopt a novel causation theory for interpreting “occurrence” language in commercial liability policies.

Chloé is heavily involved in the local legal community and often serves as a resource for the judiciary. For example, Chloé was recently one of four attorneys appointed to serve on the Eastern District of Louisiana’s Local Rules Committee, and she has also been a member of the court’s Merit Selection Panel for magistrate judge appointments.

Chloé is an active member of both the local and national Federal Bar Association. She is the immediate Past-Chair of the New Orleans Chapter of the FBA’s Younger Lawyers Division, having served as Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and the head of several board committees before that. Chloé also serves on the national FBA’s Judicial Law Clerk committee, where she works closely with the Diversity & Inclusion Committee to create programming focused on increasing diversity in federal judicial clerkships.

Publications

• “Divining the Real Nature of Real Obligations,” 92 Tulane Law Review 127 (2017) (with L. David Cromwell)
• Comment, “The '100-Mile Colonial Leash': The Durability of the Federal Subpoena Rule in Twenty-First Century Multidistrict Litigation,” 89 Tulane Law Review 277 (2014)

Presentations

• “Legal Writing by the Numbers, Part II: Another Judicial Survey of Dos, Don’ts, and Other Tips,” Federal Bar Association CLE (March 28, 2024)
• “Riding the Waves of Civil Procedure,” New Orleans Bar Association Bench-Bar Conference (with the Honorable Ethel S. Julien and the Honorable Wendy B. Vitter) (March 22, 2024)
• “‘It is Literally Impossible to be a Woman [Lawyer].’ – Inspired by America Ferrara as Gloria in Barbie,” Federal Bar Association (with the Honorable Janis van Meerveld) (February 27, 2024)
• “Using Federal Pleadings & Pre-Trial Motions to Secure the Just, Speedy, and Inexpensive Resolution of Litigation,” Louisiana State Bar Association “CLE Wrap Up” Seminar (December 19, 2023)
• “The Ethics of Pro Bono Representation and Getting Involved in EDLA's Pro Bono Program,” Federal Bar Association's Annual Malcolm Monroe Federal Practice Seminar (with the Honorable Michael B. North and the Honorable Eva J. Dossier) (December 6, 2023)
• "Procedural Pitfalls: State v. Federal Practice," Louisiana Young Lawyers Conference (March 31, 2023)

• “Pretrial Motions in Federal Court,” Louisiana State Bar Association “Back to Basics” Seminar (September 30, 2022)

• “Back by Popular Demand, Legal Writing by the Numbers: A Judicial Survey of Dos, Don’ts, and Other Tips," Federal Bar Association CLE (September 21, 2022)
• "Fourth Annual Removal and Remand Bootcamp," New Orleans Bar Association (July 28, 2022)
• "Legal Writing by the Numbers: A Judicial Survey of Dos, Don’ts, and Other Tips," Federal Bar Association CLE (June 15, 2022)
• "Federal Practice Series: Effective Brief Writing in District Court," Federal Bar Association CLE (with the Honorable Barry W. Ashe) (March 10, 2022)
• "Third Annual Removal and Remand Boot Camp," New Orleans Bar Association CLE (May 12, 2021)

• “10 Simple Rules for Success in Federal Practice,” Federal Bar Association's Annual Malcolm Monroe Federal Practice Seminar (January 13, 2021)

• “Second Annual Removal and Remand Boot Camp,” New Orleans Bar Association CLE (May 28, 2020)
• “The Younger Lawyer’s Guide to Practicing in State and Federal Court,” New Orleans Bar Association's Big Easy Bootcamp (October 29, 2019)
• “Removal and Remand Updates,” New Orleans Bar Association CLE (May 15, 2019)
• “The Winning (Electronic) Brief,” DRI Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Seminar (March 15, 2019)
• “The Younger Lawyer’s Guide to Practicing in State and Federal Court,” New Orleans Bar Association's Big Easy Bootcamp (October 25, 2018)