Member Spotlight: Eric Foley
Eric Foley serves as Senior Counsel in the New Orleans office at the MacArthur Justice Center where his practice focuses on evictions, disputes with public housing authority, denials of Social Security benefits, and advocacy for the homeless. Before joining the MacArthur Justice Center in January 2015, he was a staff attorney at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in New Orleans where he represented low-income clients in administrative hearings, trial court, and appellate court.
We hope you enjoy getting to know Eric!
How has being a member of the FBA enhanced your career or benefited you personally or professionally?
I’ve made great friends in the FBA, both in our local chapter and in the national Civil Rights Section. Some of those friends later became my co-counsel, while others have been sources of knowledge on whom I’ve relied many times.
What is your biggest strength as an attorney and why? (e.g., legal writing, oral advocacy, marketing yourself and your firm).
Maintaining client relationships is likely my biggest strength as an attorney. The nature of my work brings me many clients who are in the midst of extremely difficult circumstances, like incarceration or homelessness. Developing and maintaining connections with clients in those circumstances can be difficult, but it's a vital skillset.
What is your favorite part about being an attorney and why?
Helping people take on opponents whose power and resources may seem overwhelming is a highlight of the job for me.
What is one thing you wish you would have known before becoming an attorney and why?
I wish I would have appreciated how all-consuming this job can be, if you let it. I wish I had been intentional about having a healthy work-life balance from the beginning and heeded more seasoned attorneys’ warnings about burnout. They were right.
What is the best advice you have ever received in the legal profession?
It’s such a cliché, but the best advice is: “If the judge is going your way, then stop talking.” And yet it’s amazing how many lawyers unabashedly ignore that advice.
Where are you from and how did you end up in New Orleans?
I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts—the birth place of Dunkin’ Donuts, John Quincy Adams, and John Adams (not necessarily in order of importance). I moved to New Orleans to attend college, much to the joy of my music-loving father.
Where did you go to law school?
I went to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Name one thing that you could not live without and why?
I couldn't live without live music. Especially while working in a profession that relies on parsing the written word, it's refreshing to have an experience where ideas can be communicated to a whole group of people without any words at all.
What would you do professionally if you were not an attorney and why?
I’d be a social worker by day who moonlights as a soundboard tech at concert venues. During the day I’d get the psychic benefit of helping people and then at night I’d get to experience some great live music.
Other than your career, what are you passionate about and why?
I’m passionate about traveling with my wife and playing and listening to music. Those are all of the things that bring me the most joy in life.
Favorite New Orleans dish and restaurant?
Dish: roast beef debris po’boy. Restaurant: the late, great Avery’s on Tulane Ave. (La Petite Grocery is a very close second).
You get one superpower. What is it and why?
I’d like the power to be a human lie-detector, like the main character in “Poker Face.” Seems like it would be lots of fun in depositions.
What is a recent “success” you’ve had, either professional or personal, and how did you make it happen?
Last year, we had a First Amendment challenge to Lafayette’s anti-panhandling ordinances that ended in favorable settlement and changes to the city’s enforcement policies. It happened because I sought and listened to the advice of people a lot smarter than me, not least of which would be my co-counsel and NOFBA members Kristen Amond and Alysson Mills.