Atlanta, July 20, 2022 – The Honorable Andrew A. Pinson was officially sworn in today to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed the former Georgia Court of Appeals judge to the state’s highest court on February 14, 2022, to fill the seat vacated by former Chief Justice David E. Nahmias, who resigned from the bench on July 17. The governor administered the oath of office in the House Chamber of the State Capitol Building, and Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr introduced Justice Pinson, describing him as “level-headed” and “the voice of calm and reason in a storm.”
During his remarks today, Justice Pinson thanked his family, the leaders and judges with whom and for whom he has worked, his professional and academic mentors, his colleagues on the bench and in private practice, and his staff who have guided and supported him along his career path. Maintaining professional relationships and continuing connections with Georgia’s legal community is imperative for all judges, he said.
“Compared to our other branches of government, the judicial branch is unique, and I think special, in that it really requires a kind of public-private partnership. Boiled down, our job as judges at any level is to decide cases, to resolve disputes between parties,” he said. “On the civil side, that means that we have very little to do unless private parties bring us a case that they need help resolving. And for both civil and criminal cases, the judicial branch just cannot work unless the parties before the court, represented by counsel, do the hard work of building the record, of presenting the facts and presenting the law to us. That partnership runs so much more smoothly when we know and trust each other—when we as judges can have faith that counsel will be candid with the court and act in good faith, and when the parties know that the judge will treat each party fairly, put aside personal opinion, and apply the law as it’s written. It’s one thing to know that attorneys and judges have taken oaths to that effect, but it’s another to know that because you know them as people.”
Justice Pinson also said he looks forward to building new relationships during his tenure on the Supreme Court bench.
“To my new colleagues, I am honored to have this opportunity now to work with you. Chief Justice (Michael P.) Boggs said Monday that he believes that our State’s judiciary—from our trial judges, to our Court of Appeals, to our Supreme Court—is the best in the country. I agree,” he said. “Having worked for many years on the other side of the bench and for some time now as a judge whose work you have been grading, I know that you—along with your former colleagues, including your newly former colleague Justice Nahmias—have helped set the bar high. Rest assured I am ready and eager to continue this Court’s long tradition of excellence.”
Justice Pinson is a native Georgian, who graduated as a STAR Student and a National Merit Scholar from Briarwood Academy in Warrenton. He’s also a “Double Dawg,” having earned his undergraduate degree in finance and his Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia. Justice Pinson graduated law school at the top of his class and interned for the Executive Counsel in the Office of Gov. Sonny Perdue, Jones Day in Atlanta, and Fortson, Bentley, & Griffin in Athens.
After law school, Justice Pinson served as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for then-Chief Judge David B. Sentelle. He then joined Jones Day in Washington, D.C., for a short time before serving as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas.
Justice Pinson later returned to Georgia and re-joined Jones Day in Atlanta, where he handled a broad range of trial and appellate matters. In 2017, Justice Pinson joined the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia, and in 2018, he was appointed Solicitor General.
As Solicitor General, he led the State’s appellate and multistate litigation practice and served as the Attorney General’s chief constitutional advisor. Gov. Kemp appointed Justice Pinson to the Court of Appeals in August 2021.
Justice Pinson serves on several professional organizations, including the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, the Clarke-Carley Inn of Court, the Bleckley Inn of Court, and the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society Advisory Board.
Justice Pinson resides in DeKalb County with his wife, Sarah Beth Pinson, and their three dogs, Nimbus, Goomba, and Elphie.
Today’s ceremony also included the swearing-in of the Honorable Ben Land, previously a judge of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit Superior Court, to the Court of Appeals.