Biography

PROFILE

Passionate about fostering collaboration and achieving equitable outcomes, Judge Holdridge is a dynamic and accomplished legal professional committed to navigating complex disputes since his retirement from the bench in December 2023. In 2014, he was elected to the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal without opposition. Prior to that, he served as a judge in the 23rd JDC beginning in 1991. As a district court judge he conducted hundreds of civil and criminal jury trials as well as settling hundreds of civil cases.

Judge Holdridge received a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University Law Center in 1978, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Louisiana Law Review. He is a member of the LSU Law Center Hall of Fame. Judge Holdridge has further served on the adjunct faculty of the LSU Law Center for over twenty-five years and currently teaches Louisiana Civil Procedure. He also serves on the LSU Trial Advocacy Program Committee.

Since 2021, Judge Holdridge has served as the editor of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure published by Thomson Reuters. He is a long-time member of the Council of the Louisiana Law Institute and is now serving as the Director of the Institute.

Judge Holdridge has been involved with other organizations and currently serves on the Judicial Council of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He previously served as the chairman of the Louisiana Board of Examiners of Certified Shorthand Reporters. He is a past president of the Louisiana District Judges’ Association. As past Chairman of the District Judges “Best Practices Committee,” he led the effort to have Judges Bench Books developed for the trial judges of the state. He was also part of the mentoring program of the District Judges Association. He is the past President of the First Circuit Judges Association. He is also a member and past President of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Judicial College. Along with Professor William Corbett, he is the co-chair of the Judicial College/Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel Torts Conference. Judge Holdridge is a frequent speaker at the Louisiana Association of Justice/Louisiana Judicial College program as well as various Louisiana State Bar Association and local bar association programs.

In 2018, Judge Holdridge was awarded the Catherine D. Kimball Award for the Advancement of the Administration of Justice presented by the Louisiana State Bar Association. He was also awarded the President’s Award by the Baton Rouge Bar Association. In 2020, Judge Holdridge was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the LSU Law Center and in 2021, Judge Holdridge was named the Outstanding Jurist by the Louisiana Bar Foundation.