Nels Peterson to Become New Chief Justice

Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson has been unanimously elected by his colleagues to become the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

He will succeed Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs, who will resign from the Court on March 31, 2025, after two decades as a judge at various state court levels, including eight as a Justice.

The Court also unanimously elected Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren as its next Presiding Justice. The new roles take effect April 1, 2025.

The Chief Justice, who serves one four-year term, leads Georgia’s judicial branch. The Chief Justice is the spokesperson for the Supreme Court, as well as for the entire state judiciary. He presides over the Court’s oral arguments and the Court’s deliberation of cases, although he has only one vote as does each of the eight other Justices.

The Chief Justice also chairs the Judicial Council of Georgia, the judicial branch policy-making body created by the Supreme Court that includes the State Bar President and 27 judges who represent all classes of courts in the state. The Presiding Justice serves in the Chief Justice’s absence and is the vice-chair of the Judicial Council.

Nels Peterson was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2016, and was elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024. He previously served in a variety of other roles in Georgia state government, including as judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, general counsel for the University System of Georgia, Georgia’s first solicitor general in the Attorney General’s Office, and executive counsel to the Governor.

Before entering state government, Nels practiced at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and clerked for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and Harvard Law School.

Nels has served on numerous government and non-profit boards and committees, has received a variety of honors and awards, lives with his wife Jennifer and two children in Cobb County, and is an active member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.