Section 1983 in Theory and Practice: Qualified Immunity’s Shaky Foundations and the Life Cycle of a Civil Rights Case

William Most, Founder | Most & Associates

William Most is a civil rights litigator and the founder of Most & Associates in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, multiple federal and state courts of appeal, and trial courts from California to Louisiana to Maine, and he is licensed in Louisiana and California. Before entering the law, he worked as a fisheries biologist.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Most graduated from Harvard College in 2005 and earned his law degree from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2011, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, an honor limited to the top ten percent of the class. He holds a Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law. His bar admissions include the State of Louisiana, the State of California, the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits, and federal district courts across Louisiana and California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Most has been named to the Louisiana Super Lawyers list for 2024, 2025, and 2026, following four consecutive selections to the Louisiana Rising Stars list from 2020 through 2023. He received the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association’s 2025 Public Service Award and holds a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco District Attorney. His peers have repeatedly voted him among the Top Lawyers listed in New Orleans Magazine in the Labor & Employment and Employee Benefits Law categories. He served as Chair of the New Orleans Bar Association Civil Rights Committee for the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 terms.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Most is Of Counsel to the ATA Law Group, a California-based law firm, and has served as a board member of the National Police Accountability Project. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Politics in New Orleans and a Scholar of the National Lawyers Guild. He has been an editor of the Climate Change Law and Policy Reporter, a city-council-appointed member of the San Francisco Urban Forestry Council, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster youth. He has testified before the state legislature, made hundreds of media appearances, and presents frequently on civil rights topics, including recent programs on qualified immunity, Section 1983 actions, and the life cycle of a civil rights case.

• Experience

Mr. Most practiced at the California law firm of Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP before moving to New Orleans and founding Most & Associates. His clients have included individuals, businesses, families, municipalities, state agencies, American Indian tribes, journalists, law enforcement officers, prisoners, tenants, and non-profits, among many others. His appellate oral arguments include Hicks v. LeBlanc, Grant v. LeBlanc, McNeal v. LeBlanc, Rogers v. Smith, and Brown v. Burmaster in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, along with arguments before the First Circuit, the Maine Supreme Court, and California and Louisiana appellate courts.

SESSION 1 – The Life Cycle of a Civil Rights Case | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session walks through the life cycle of a civil rights case, beginning with the basics of 42 USC 1983. It then turns to the qualified immunity considerations that arise as the case moves forward, the interlocutory appeals those rulings can trigger, and what it takes to prove Monell claims.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Qualified Immunity: Key Problems and Why Textualism Should Eliminate It | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session opens with what qualified immunity is and how it works. It then examines how recent research shows the doctrine contradicts the original text of Section 1983, whether it is historically supported, and whether it is good policy — and why textualism should eliminate it.