‘It’s time’: Georgia Court of Appeals judge stepping down
After more than 10 years deciding cases, Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Brian Rickman is stepping down and returning to private practice as a plaintiff’s attorney.
Rickman, 49, is in the middle of a six-year elected term and plans to leave the bench in early July, at the end of the current court term. His departure creates a second vacancy on the court for Gov. Brian Kemp to fill.
Rickman spoke exclusively to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his career change ahead of announcing it Monday. He said politics didn’t factor into his decision, which was motivated in large part by a desire to return to client representation.
“I love my job, but I feel myself missing advocacy,” Rickman said Thursday. “And when you’re a judge whose job is to be the referee, so to speak, when you start feeling the pull of advocacy, then it’s time.”
A native of the northeast Georgia mountains, Rickman is joining personal injury litigation firm Cathey & Strain in Cornelia, close to his Rabun County home. He’s taking one of his longtime staff attorneys, Maggie Hastings, with him.
Hastings worked as a prosecutor with Rickman when he was the district attorney in the Mountain Judicial Circuit and moved with him to the court when he was appointed as a judge in late 2015 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal.
Rickman said he and Hastings will lend their appellate expertise to the firm’s trial work starting in July. He said the firm’s progression from humble beginnings in his community to “one of the premier products liability and wrongful death firms in Georgia” resonated with him.
“They work on really big cases, but it’s still small enough that you really get to know everybody you work with,” he said.
Rickman said the timing is right for him to leave public service, in part because he’s now vested in a retirement plan. He said the fact he can earn significantly more in private practice was also a factor in his decision.
“Once I vested and you start thinking about whether you’re going to make the jump, if you do make the decision to go, sooner is better rather than later, because it is a big life adjustment to go from the court back into the private sector,” he said.
Before getting his bachelor’s degree from Piedmont College, Rickman worked as a jailer at the Rabun County Detention Center. He got his law degree from the University of Georgia.
An attorney since 2001, Rickman spent several years as a prosecutor before becoming a partner in a small law firm, Stockton & Rickman, in Rabun County. In 2008, he was appointed by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue as the district attorney of the Mountain Judicial Circuit, covering Habersham, Rabun and Stephens counties. He held the role for seven years until his appointment to the bench.
Rickman said the thing he’ll miss most after hanging up his robe is the camaraderie with his Court of Appeals colleagues and their counterparts on the Georgia Supreme Court. Both courts are housed in the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in downtown Atlanta.
He said he wants to speak out in support of courts and judges once he is off the bench, noting the growing animosity directed toward the judiciary across the country.
“When you see what goes into the decision-making, and probably more importantly, what doesn’t go into the decision-making, it can be very uplifting as far as your faith in institutions,” he said.
Some notable cases Rickman has handled include the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating case, in which 35 educators were indicted, and the prosecution of a press secretary for former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
He was on panels that reversed the convictions of a former DeKalb County police officer who shot and killed a naked and unarmed mentally ill war veteran, and granted immunity to the city of Augusta Housing Authority over the shooting of a tenant.
Rickman also briefly served on the hearing panel of the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, the state agency that investigates and prosecutes allegations of judicial misconduct.
He was the chief judge of the Court of Appeals from 2021 to 2023.
Rickman, who has two children with his wife, Maggie Rickman, said one of the most challenging things about being a judge who cares deeply about cases is second-guessing rulings.
“I think you’re not human if cases don’t haunt you from time to time about whether you got the decision right,” he said.
About the Author
Journalist Rosie Manins is a senior courts and legal affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
