Sharonda R. Williams

Sharonda Williams is special counsel in Fishman Haygood's Litigation Section. She also serves as Vice-President, General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Loyola University New Orleans, a position she has held since 2021.

Sharonda’s distinguished career spans more than twenty years in public service and private practice. Notably, she served as City Attorney for the City of New Orleans from May 2013 to November 2015 and as Chief Deputy City Attorney from October 2011 until May 2013. As City Attorney, Sharonda worked closely with the United States Department of Justice as the lead attorney handling the most comprehensive police consent decree in the history of the United States and the consent decree aimed at reforming the Orleans Parish Jail. Sharonda was also the lead attorney representing the City in settling a more than 30-year dispute relating to back pay and pension issues for the New Orleans Firefighters.

Additionally, Sharonda represented the Vieux Carré Commission Foundation in a lawsuit, the first in the organization’s history, against the City of New Orleans after the City Council approved plans for a restaurant over the objections of French Quarter preservationists.

She has also represented the Orleans Parish School Board, composed of duly elected officials representing seven geographic areas, on numerous occasions, including in a lawsuit to force a local charter management organization to provide students with free bus transportation to and from its schools.

Sharonda is very active in professional and civic organizations at the local and state levels. In 2022, she was sworn in for a five-year term as a member of the board of commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, a position appointed by former Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, and now serves as the board's vice chair.

Additionally, Sharonda served as chair of the board of commissioners of the Regional Transit Authority, to which she was appointed by then New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu with the unanimous approval of the New Orleans City Council, from 2016 to 2018.

Sharonda has been a Trial Advocacy Instructor at Tulane University School of Law and Skills Course Instructor at Loyola University College of Law. She regularly lectures on the state and national level at seminars and continuing education events.

In 2025, Sharonda was named to the Power List: Port and Maritime by New Orleans CityBusiness and the New Orleans 500 by Biz New Orleans Magazine.