Among the many judges who came to campus during the 2024–25 academic year, two served as visiting instructors through the law school’s Jurist in Residence programs.

Georgia Supreme Court Justice Charles J. “Charlie” Bethel (J.D.’01) was the Hines Jurist in Residence. Bethel has been with the Supreme Court since 2018, briefly serving as a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals prior to joining the state’s highest court.

While in Athens, Bethel also delivered the Hines Lecture in April titled “Getting Underway: Thoughts on a Successful Life After Law School.”

The Hines Jurist in Residence is supported by The Be Kind Fund, which was established in memory of the late Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice P. Harris Hines in 2019.

Stephen A. Higginson, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Barack Obama in 2011, was the Edenfield Jurist in Residence. He also serves as the presiding judge for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.

Higginson was previously an assistant U.S. attorney for both the Eastern District of Louisiana and the District of Massachusetts. Additionally, he was an associate professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law from 2004 to 2011.

The B. Avant Edenfield Jurist in Residence program, made possible by a contribution from Allen W. Yee (J.D.’03), enables one or more Article III judges to spend time at the School of Law each year.