Connecting students with jurists in an educational setting provides a unique and valuable learning experience for School of Law students. During the 2021–22 academic year several members of the judiciary visited Athens. Among them:

Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton (J.D.’91) is now the school’s Sanders Scholar in Political Leadership.

Harold D. Melton (J.D.’91), who previously served as the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, was named the law school’s Carl E. Sanders Scholar in Political Leadership. He taught a spring 2022 seminar titled Representing the State. The course addressed legal and professional issues that arise when one works as a lawyer for the state.

Leslie Abrams Gardner, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Georgia, served as the School of Law’s B. Avant Edenfield Jurist in Residence, named in memory of the longtime U.S. District Court judge who was also a 1958 graduate of the law school. Gardner taught a criminal sentencing mini course.

Christopher Brock, the inaugural Be Kind Scholarship recipient, and Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren, this spring’s Hines Jurist-in-Residence, had the opportunity to visit with Justice Harris Hines’ widow, Mrs. Helen Hines (middle).

Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren served as the spring 2022 Hines Jurist-in-Residence (which honors the memory of the late Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice P. Harris Hines) and taught a mini-course focused on persuading the judge and jury. She also presented a lecture to students on professionalism.

Georgia Supreme Court Justice Verda M. Colvin (J.D.’90) spoke to the incoming first-year class during fall orientation. Colvin welcomed the new students, describing the law as an “honorable and needed profession” and noted “it is everything people have told you and even more.”

U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Georgia Steve C. Jones (J.D.’87) visited the School of Law and spoke with students about the role of a federal judge.

U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia Benjamin W. Cheesbro (J.D.’10) and U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Rodolfo A. Ruiz II spoke to Instructor Anna White Howard’s (J.D.’10) Writing for Judicial Clerkships class.

Marshall Chair of Constitutional Law Randy Beck hosted several members of the judiciary during his State Constitutional Law course, including Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Jeffrey S. Sutton, Supreme Court Chief Justice David E. Nahmias, Warren, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Nels S.D. Peterson and Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Andrew A. Pinson (J.D.’11).