Justice Robert Benham to be Featured Speaker at Shorter College's MLK Program Justice Robert Benham of the Supreme Court of Georgia will be the featured speaker during Shorter College’s Martin Luther King Program at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, in the college’s Brookes Chapel. The program is part of Shorter’s spring chapel schedule and is open to the public at no charge.  Justice Benham began his judicial career on the Court of Appeals of Georgia, where he served for six years beginning in 1984. In 1989, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, and he served as presiding justice from 1994 to 1995. He became chief justice in 1995 and held that position until 2001. He continues to serve on the court, having been reelected in 2002 to serve his third six-year term.

During Justice Benham’s tenure as chief justice, the Supreme Court of Georgia was listed as one of the most progressive supreme courts in the nation by the American Bar Association Journal. Additionally, Justice Benham was listed in Georgia Trend magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Georgians” for six years while serving as chief justice and is presently listed as a “Notable Georgian.” He was named by Ebony magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Blacks in America” for three consecutive years during his term as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

A graduate of Tuskegee University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Virginia, Justice Benham engaged in the private practice of law for 15 years before entering the judiciary. He has been honored with many awards, including Distinguished Service Awards from the State Bar of Georgia, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission and the NAACP. He was the proud recipient of the 2004 Spirit of Scouting Award.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association and is the State of Georgia’s liaison to the National Consortium on Racial and Ethic Fairness in the Courts. In the legal arena, he was instrumental in creating Georgia’s Indigent Defense Program, and he received national, state and local awards for creating Georgia’s first drug courts. The State Bar of Georgia Community Service Award is named after Justice Benham, as well as the first Law Camp for High School students. He received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Litigation Section of the Atlanta Bar Association and the 2007 R. Prudence Herndon Award from the Gate City Bar Association. He also received the 2007 William Hastie Award from the National Bar Association at its national meeting in Atlanta. Justice Benham created Georgia’s first Comprehensive Legal Education Program, which has allowed more than 200 minority students to attend law school.

For more information on Shorter College’s spring chapel program, visit www.shorter.edu/about/chapel.htm.

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