Tulane Law School grad leads New Orleans’ legal team

Rebecca Dietz, a 2002 Tulane Law School graduate, is New Orleans’ new city attorney, taking the position in November, just three years after joining the city’s legal team.
 
Dietz, a former King, Krebs and Jurgens partner who practiced oil and gas and environmental litigation, worked as Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s executive counsel for the past year. She started with the city in 2012 as a deputy city attorney leading the Contracts Division. In 2014, she was general counsel and deputy director of legal affairs for the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

This administration is effecting real change and growth in New Orleans — it is exciting to be a part of that.

Rebecca Dietz, New Orleans city attorney

 
Dietz says she transitioned to government service after a decade in private practice because “it was important to me to make a real contribution to New Orleans.”
 
As the mayor’s executive counsel, Dietz acted as in-house counsel for Landrieu and the city’s executive team. As city attorney, she leads almost 50 attorneys who handle the gamut of legal affairs assignments: providing legal advice to the mayor, council and other city offices; managing litigation; drafting proposed ordinances requested by elected officials; and handling all city contracts.
 
She also oversees major assignments like these: providing guidance on city codes as officials debate removing Confederate monuments; finalizing terms of a settlement with the firefighters union in litigation over pensions and benefits; working with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office under the federal consent decree to improve jail conditions; and defending the city in a lawsuit over the selection of Four Seasons to redevelop the vacant World Trade Center building.
 
Dietz also oversees attorneys who prosecute cases in municipal and traffic court and those who represent the city in code-compliance cases.
 
“This administration is effecting real change and growth in New Orleans — it is exciting to be a part of that,” Dietz says. “Working on behalf of this great city is not always easy, but it is always rewarding.”
 
Linda P. Campbell is Tulane Law School’s director of communications.