SalvadorBivalacqua
Managing Partner
Sal Bivalacqua is a founder of the firm and been a partner 2005. In 2025, he became managing partner of Bivalacqua, Gelé + Ellis. Outside the courtroom, Sal enjoys a full life with his wife, Eileen, and their dogs, Ronan, and Oliver, in New Orleans. He is an avid traveler who has explored destinations as far as Australia and New Zealand, where he and Eileen were married in 2014. Sal has a passion for cars—especially Porsche 911s—and a love of building intricate model kits. He values time outdoors, whether it’s diving the Great Barrier Reef or planning adventures closer to home, and he balances his professional drive with a deep appreciation for family, creativity, and exploration.
If you asked his mom, she would say that Sal was born to be a lawyer. She based this on Sal’s ability to talk himself out of trouble. In truth the law found Sal in his last year of college when he took a class by a visiting aw professor. What he discovered was a profession he not only loved but excelled in. For Sal, the courtroom is where he feels most at home, bringing energy and focus to every case. He thrives on tackling complex or novel legal issues, digging deep to understand them and often crafting creative strategies others might overlook. Beyond the intellectual challenge, what drives him is the chance to make a real difference—helping individuals and businesses navigate tough situations, find solutions, and ultimately succeed.
Education
After graduating in the top 5 percent of his class at the University of Southeastern Louisiana, where he earned his BA, Sal went on to pursue a law degree at Tulane University School of Law, graduating in the top quarter of his class in 2000. During his time as a law student, Sal gained both a global perspective on the law and practical experience that benefits his clients to this day.
Sal studied both American and international law, participated in programs focused on Greek and Australian jurisprudence and, as a third-year law student, worked for the second largest law firm in Sydney, Australia during his time as a law exchange student at the University of New South Wales.
In his second year at Tulane, Sal gained in-depth knowledge of the insurance industry while serving as a summer associate in a firm that provides in-house counsel to State Farm. This experience is invaluable in his personal injury practice.
Experience
Sal spent the first six years of his legal career working at a prominent New Orleans firm that had 35 years of experience providing a wide variety of legal services to the people of Southeast Louisiana. During his time there, Sal honed his skills and quickly made a name for himself in the local legal community. In a case that would help define the future of his legal career, Sal obtained a six-figure judgment in a case of first impression against the United States Navy. This successful start launched Sal on the path to establishing a robust litigation practice that continues to grow and thrive.
Sal’s litigation experience, which includes high-stakes, $100 million+ contract disputes, allows him to offer his business clients not only confident, sound representation in a variety of areas, but also the type of trial experience that ensures his business clients have immediate access to the courts in the event that quick action is needed to protect their interests. Even against large companies and law firms with seemingly unlimited resources at their disposal, Sal has gone toe-to-toe against them and achieved successful results for his clients.
As Sal built his career, his passion for helping injured individuals continued and was complemented by a desire to help entrepreneurs grow their ideas into profitable businesses. A large part of Sal’s practice involves aiding business owners in their efforts to get new ventures off the ground in New Orleans and surrounding communities.