Justice Verda M. Colvin was appointed to the Supreme Court on July 20, 2021, by Gov. Brian Kemp. She is the first African-American female appointed by a Republican governor to the state’s high court.
Previously, she served on the Court of Appeals, having been appointed by Gov. Kemp in April 2020. Her time as judge also includes nearly six years as a Superior Court judge in the Macon Judicial Circuit, during which she served on the Council of Accountability Court Judges.
Justice Colvin discovered her love for trial work early in her career as an Assistant Solicitor in Athens-Clarke County. From there, she went on to serve as Assistant General Counsel to Clark Atlanta University and then as Assistant District Attorney in Clayton County. Before becoming a judge, Justice Colvin was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia, where she prosecuted a wide range of offenses from drug trafficking to white collar crime.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Justice Colvin attended Daniel McLaughlin Therrell High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in government and religion from Sweet Briar College in Virginia and her juris doctorate from the University Of Georgia School Of Law.
Judge Colvin is committed to service professionally and personally. In 2019, the Supreme Court appointed her to serve on the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC). Additionally, during her tenure as a Superior Court Judge she served on the CSCJ Bench & Bar and Legislative Committees and as a member of the Council of Accountability Court Judges (CACJ) where she was part of the Funding Committee, the Committee Chair for Accountability and Treatment Courts and a member of the CACJ Executive Committee. Justice Colvin was serving as co-chair of the Rules Committee for the Council of Superior Court Judges (CSCJ) at the time of her appointment to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Kemp. She formerly served on Gov. Nathan Deal’s Criminal Justice Reform Committee and the Law Enforcement Task Force Committee. During her service on the Court of Appeals Justice Colvin served as a member of the Internal Operations Manual and the Continuing Judicial Education and In-house Continuing Legal Education for Staff Attorneys. She co-chaired the Strategic Planning/Court Futures Committee and was appointed to serve on the Continuing Judicial Education Board of Trustees. In her service on the Supreme Court of Georgia she currently serves as the Chair of the Access to Justice Committee.
Justice Colvin is a member of several organizations and boards: The Order of Barristers, Macon Bar Association, American Bar Association (ABA), Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABWA), Georgia Association for Women Lawyers (GAWL), Gate City Bar-Judicial Section, William A. Bootle American Inn of Court, Charles Weltner Family Inn of Court, Clarence Cooper Inn of Court, Clarke-Carley Inn of Court, the Downtown Rotary Club of Macon , Board of Trustees for Mount de Sales Academy (Chair of Board in 2021), Jack and Jill of America-Macon Chapter, Board of Directors for the Fuller Center for Housing of Macon (President 2018-2021), Boys and Girls Club of Central Georgia Corporate Board of Directors, Macon Bibb Citizens Advocacy Board, Secretary (2021-Present), Co-chair of ONEMACON 2.0, Georgia Citizen Advocacy Board, Sweet-Briar College Board of Trustees, Goodwill Industries Board of Directors, Wesleyan College Board of Trustees, and Knight Foundation Advisory Board. Justice Colvin is a proud Leadership Macon 2010 graduate.
Among her numerous awards and honors are Justice Verda M. Colvin Month in honor of Women’s History Month in Macon-Bibb County (2022) by Mayor Lester Miller, Alaimo Award (2022) by Georgia Trial Lawyer Association (GTLA), The Leah Ward Sears Award for Distinction in the Profession (2021) by GABWA, The Young Lawyer Division of the State Bar of Georgia Distinguished Judicial Award (2020-21), The Honorable Debra Bernes Community Volunteer Award (2021) by GAWL, Tradition of Excellence Award as a Judge by The General Practice and Trial Section of the State Bar of Georgia (2019), Middle Georgia Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year (2019), The House of Hope-Women’s History Month Award (2019), NAACP President’s Award (2018), Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Pearls of Service Award (2017), Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Citizen of the Year (2016 and 2017), Career Women’s Network Woman of Achievement (2016), Georgia Orthodox Missionary Baptist Association Community Service Award (2015), and Leadership Macon’s Robert F. Hatcher Distinguished Alumni Award as a Community Leader.
Justice Colvin has served as an adjunct professor at Mercer School of Law and she is a member of First Baptist Church where she has previously served as a children’s Sunday school teacher and is currently on the Women’s Ministry Leadership Team. She is the proud mother of two children, Weston and Taylor, and the wife of Nathaniel Walker with whom she shares two other adult children, Nathan and Nathalie.
