Kemp gets six finalists for upcoming Georgia Supreme Court vacancy

Gov. Brian Kemp has been given a short list of four judges and two attorneys as candidates to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Georgia Supreme Court.

After interviewing 21 candidates last week, the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission said Monday it has sent its list to Kemp. The governor’s appointee will succeed Chief Justice Harold Melton, who is stepping down from the state’s high court at the end of the month.

The six candidates are:

• Verda Colvin, whom Kemp appointed to the state Court of Appeals in April 2020. Six years before that, Colvin became the first Black woman to serve as a Superior Court judge in the Macon Judicial Circuit. A former federal prosecutor, Colvin was born and raised in Atlanta.
• T. Mills Fleming, a lawyer with the Savannah firm Hunter, Maclean, Exley & Dunn. Fleming chairs the firm’s health care practice group and handles bankruptcy and creditors’ rights issues. Mills is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
• Aaron Mason, a Clayton County Superior Court judge. In 2010, Mason became the first Black jurist on Clayton’s State Court bench. In 2016, he was appointed to the Superior Court. From 2000 to 2010, Mason was a lawyer in the state Attorney General’s Office.
• Shondeana Crews Morris, a DeKalb County Superior Court judge. When Kemp appointed Morris to the Superior Court bench in 2019, she was a DeKalb State Court judge. Before that, Morris was a deputy district attorney for the Fulton County DA’s Office.
• Andrew Pinson, solicitor general in the state Attorney General’s Office. Pinson oversees appellate and multi-state litigation in state and federal courts. He once worked at the Atlanta law firm Jones Day and was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
• Holly Veal, a Henry County Superior Court judge. When then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to the bench, Veal became the first Black judge on the Flint Judicial Circuit. She was previously a Magistrate Court judge and was also a public defender and a prosecutor.

Melton’s replacement will be a justice on the Supreme Court. Justice David Nahmias, who has served on the court since 2009, will become Georgia’s next chief justice on July 1.

Kemp is expected to announce his choice after interviewing the six candidates, said Atlanta lawyer Vincent Russo, co-chair of the nominating commission.