Preston Castille is the District 8 Member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Along with his fellow BESE members, he represents more than 800,000 Louisiana students and their families. Mr. Castille practiced law with the Taylor Porter law firm for 25 years and was a partner and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He retired from the partnership in January 2020 and is currently Of Counsel with the firm. Mr. Castille also served on the international management board of MSI Global Alliance, a network of more than 250 accounting and law firms in more than 100 countries and was an Area Representative for the continent of North America. Prior to law school, Mr. Castille worked as an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in Washington, DC.
Mr. Castille is currently President of Helix Community Schools and has served on numerous education boards. He was an adjunct law professor at the LSU Law Center for eight years and currently teaches Education Law & Policy at the Southern University Law Center, where he has taught numerous courses for nearly two decades, including Louisiana Civil Procedure I & II, Evidence, Trial Advocacy and Pretrial Litigation Practice. In 2009, the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Mr. Castille Judge Pro Tempore to the Baton Rouge City Court, and he continued to serve as an Ad Hoc Judge for many years after he returned to the full-time practice of law.
Mr. Castille is a former National President of the Southern University Alumni Federation and currently sits on the Tulane Law School Dean’s Advisory Council and the Southern University System Foundation board of trustees. He is Chairman of the board for the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and serves on the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) board of directors. Mr. Castille previously served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association and the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society. He also served as a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, the Louisiana State Bar Association Board of Governors and House of Delegates, and as a council member of the Louisiana Law Institute. Mr. Castille served on Governor John Bel Edwards Higher Education Transition Team in 2014 and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s K12 Education Transition Team in 2015.
Mr. Castille earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Southern University and A&M College. He was student body president and a student member of the Louisiana Board of Regents. Mr. Castille also earned a JD from Tulane University Law School, where he graduated Order of the Barristers and was a member of the Moot Court Board. He grew up in St. Landry Parish and graduated valedictorian of Plaisance High School.
Mr. Castille and his wife, Marian, a middle school math teacher, have three children and they live in Baton Rouge.
