Presiding Justice P. Harris Hines of Marietta has been unanimously elected as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. He will assume the position Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, succeeding Chief Justice Hugh P. Thompson.
The Court has also unanimously elected Justice Harold D. Melton to become the new Presiding Justice.
Hines served as Superior Court Judge of the Cobb Judicial Circuit for more than 12 years before Governor Zell Miller appointed him to the state Supreme Court in 1995. He spent the previous eight years as a judge of the State Court in Cobb County.
An Atlanta native, Hines graduated from Henry W. Grady High School, Emory University and Emory University School of Law. For 16 years, he has served as Chairman of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Committee on Justice for Children.
Melton served as Executive Counsel to Governor Sonny Perdue before the governor appointed him to the state Supreme Court in 2005.
Before that, the Atlanta resident spent 11 years in the Georgia Department of Law under two Attorneys General where he dealt with issues that ranged from the creation of the Georgia Lottery Corporation to the administration of Georgia’s tobacco settlement. He eventually served as Section Leader over the Consumer Interests Division.
A native of Washington, D.C., Melton grew up in East Point and Marietta. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Georgia in 1991.
Both justices will be sworn into their new positions in a ceremony at the State Capitol in House chambers on Jan. 6.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/9/443173/harris-hines-to-become-new-chief-justice