Blair Schilling represents clients in a wide range of commercial matters in federal and state court, with a concentration in environmental law.
Blair’s environmental practice spans coastal erosion and restoration, land contamination, land use, clean water, asset retirement, brownfield site cleanup and redevelopment, regulatory and permitting matters, and expropriation issues. In doing this work, Blair represents state government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies and individuals, including the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resource Defense Council, Louisiana Wildlife Federation, Orleans Audubon Society, Pontchartrain Conservancy, Restore the Mississippi River Delta, and many private landowners. The goal of her environmental practice is to make Louisiana more resilient and encourage future sustainable economic growth in the region.
Blair represents landowners throughout Louisiana against some of the oil and gas industry’s largest operators for land loss, oilfield contamination, erosion, and groundwater contamination. Because the cases she handles are highly technical and require a great deal of scientific and operational understanding, Blair is known for immersing herself in the complicated aspects of these matters, as well as for her keen ability to steer her cases in a strategic and effective manner to achieve the overarching goal of the litigation.
- Represents Plaintiff, whose Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, property is composed of coastal wetlands. The Defendants, including Southern Natural Gas Company, LLC and Gulf South Pipeline Company, LLC, among others, dredged pipeline canals on the Plaintiff’s property. The Defendants (or their predecessors-in-interest) entered into right-of-way agreements with the Plaintiff (or their predecessors-in-interest), contracts which require that the pipeline canals cannot exceed certain widths. The canals far exceed these stated widths, a breach of the contracts. Additionally, the expansion of the canals is causing significant damage and erosion on the property. The matter is set for a three-week jury trial May 1–19, 2028.
- Represented the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which oversees the wetland property of the Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge. Occupying over a thousand acres of coastal marshlands in Jefferson Parish, this land is entrusted to the LDWF and provides habitats for many species of fish and wildlife. It also offers valuable ecological functions, namely storm protection and public recreation. Over time, numerous canals were dredged across the area for the installation of oil and gas pipelines. The failure to maintain the canals and related infrastructure is in violation of right of way agreements and has caused destruction of the important marshlands across the Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge. The LDWF filed a suit seeking to require the pipeline Defendants to honor their contractual obligations to safeguard and restore the coastal wetlands they have damaged. The LDWF also filed suit as the agent chosen by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the other co-owner of the land, to represent its interests in this litigation. The firm successfully resolved the case in January 2026. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, et al. v. BP Oil Pipeline Company, et al., Case No. 848-369, 24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson.
- Represents several environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), including the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resource Defense Council, Louisiana Wildlife Federation, Orleans Audubon Society, Pontchartrain Conservancy, Restore the Mississippi River Delta, and others, providing counsel on legal and regulatory compliance, master planning, and strategic planning. Blair also represents the ENGOs in legal matters, including intervening in a federal lawsuit aimed at derailing the federal permits issued for the $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project and filing amicus curiae related to the constitutionality of Louisiana’s Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act.
- Class action
- Commercial disputes
- Environmental
- Government and regulatory
- Plaintiff
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Government and public policy
- Natural resources
- Oil and gas
- J.D., magna cum laude - Loyola University New Orleans College of Law - 2013
- B.A. in Integrated Strategic Marketing - University of Kentucky - 2007
- American Bar Association – Young Lawyers Division: Member, Disaster Legal Services Program (2023-2024); Vice-Chair, Environment, Energy & Resources Committee (2023-2024)
- American Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Association for Women Attorneys – New Orleans Chapter: Member; Past President
- Independent Women’s Organization of Greater New Orleans, Past Chair, Bylaws Committee
- Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow
- Louisiana Association for Justice, Member, Board of Governors (2025-2026)
- New Orleans Bar Association, Member
- Women’s Professional Council of New Orleans, Chair, Bylaws Committee
- Young Leadership Council, Legal Counsel/Secretary, Board of Directors (2025)
- Louisiana - 2013