2025 Louisiana
Religious Freedom Summit

Michael O’Brien joined Becket as Counsel in 2023. His practice focuses on First Amendment and appellate litigation. Before joining Becket, Mike worked at Jones Walker LLP in New Orleans, Louisiana, His appellate experience includes a 12-0 victory before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in which the court overruled two of its prior precedents. Before that, Mike was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, Illinois.

Mike served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas M. Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Stephen A. Higginson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mike graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a Rubenstein Scholar and served as Comments Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He was the Valedictorian of his graduating class at the University of Notre Dame.

Principal Deputy Solicitor General for Louisiana, where he passionately defends the Constitution, the rule of law, and the state’s sovereignty in high stakes legal battles on behalf of Louisiana Attorney General, Liz Murrill. His career is marked by a strong foundation in trial and appellate practice at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Dallas, Texas along with clerkships for Judge Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit and Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas. Zack graduated summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he served Editor-in-Chief of the SMU Law Review, and he earned dual degrees with honors in Electrical Engineering and Political Science from Louisiana State University, where he served as the student body president. Zack resides in Baton Rouge with his wife Karlee and his two daughters Josephine and Cecilia.

Clinical Professor with the Tulane University Law School, and leads the Tulane First Amendment Clinic.  Prior to joining Tulane, he previously served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Kimball on the Louisiana Supreme Court, as Senior Supervising Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and as Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Louisiana. He has extensive experience in civil rights litigation, policy advocacy, and supervision of junior lawyers in public interest practice. He received his bachelors degree from Washington College in Maryland, and Juris Doctor from the Paul Herbert Law Center at Louisiana State University.