Eleventh Year       Jan /Feb  / Mar  2011      Volume 11 Issue 1

Bus: (404) 762-8235

"Proclaming the Word of God through Thoughts, Ideas, and Concepts"

Justice Robert Benham - Cont'd

Justice Benham began his judicial career on the Court of Appeals of Georgia where he served for six years beginning in 1984.

In 1989, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Georgia and served as Presiding Justice from 1994 to 1995.

Justice Benham became Chief Justice in 1995 and held that position until 2001.

He continues to serve on the Court having been reelected in 2008 to serve his fourth six-year term.
Justice Benham was listed in Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians for six years while serving as Chief Justice.

He was named by Ebony Magazine as one of the 100 most influential blacks in America for three consecutive years during his term as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court
Justice Benham was educated at Tuskegee University, the University of Georgia and the University of Virginia. He engaged in the private practice of law for fifteen years before entering the judiciary.

He also made history both as the first African American to establish a law practice in his hometown of Cartersville and as the first African American to sit on the Georgia State Court of Appeals. [He is a graduate of the former Summer Hill High School in Cartersville, GA.]

Justice Benham has lectured at numerous law schools and served as facilitator for legal conferences in twenty-six states on topics ranging from judicial administra -tion to appellate practice.
Notable achievements are:

● National, state, and local awards for creating
    Georgia's first Drug Courts
● The State Bar of Georgia Community Service Award
    is named after Justice Benham
● The first Law Camp for High School Students is
    named after Justice Benham also
● He was instrumental in creating Georgia's Indigent
    Defense Program
● He created Georgia's first Comprehensive Legal
   Education Program which has allowed over 200
    minority students to attend law school
He is married to the former Nell Dobson and they have two children. Justice Benham is a member of the Deacons Board of the Greater Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

"Justice Robert Benham was the first African American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia"

". . . [He] created Georgia's first . . . [CLE] program which has allowed over 200 minority students to attend law school."

Editor's Note: Justice Robert Benham and I are classmates of Summer Hill High School [1963].

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