The Marietta Daily Journal – Three in the ring to be next on the bench

AS EXPECTED, candidates for the seat on the Cobb Superior Court that will open up next year wasted no time in throwing their hats in the ring this week.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Ann Harris, Cobb Juvenile Court Judge Juanita Stedman and lawyer Nathan Wade all threw their hats into the ring this week to succeed Judge Jim Bodiford, who announced via Tuesday’s “Around Town” column he would retire at year end rather than seek a sixth term on the bench.

Don’t be surprised to see another candidate or two emerge for his seat as well.

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AS FOR THE THREE announced candidates for Bodiford’s judgeship, Harris has worked as a prosecutor since 1995 and has a juris doctorate degree from Vanderbilt University. As a member of the Multi-Jurisdictional Human Trafficking Taskforce, she was instrumental in drafting Georgia’s original Human Trafficking statute that was passed by the Legislature in 2006. And in 2003 she was part of a select group of prosecutors and judges who went to the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) to train prosecutors there on effective criminal investigations and prosecutions. She’s a past president of the Smyrna Optimist Club and is a longtime member of the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club.

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JUANITA STEDMAN has served as Juvenile Court Judge since 2000 and also presides over the Cobb Juvenile Drug Court and the Family Dependency Treatment Court. She earlier was an attorney with Cauthorn & Phillips and served as a law clerk for the late Judge Robert Flournoy Jr. Prior to her legal career, Stedman was a Special Ed teacher at Marietta High School and served as an assistant professor in the education department at Georgia State University. She is a former member of the Marietta School Board, earned her juris doctorate degree from Georgia State University, and has lived here for more than three decades.

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NATHAN WADE’S practice, The Wade and Bradley Law Firm, specializes in family/domestic issues and personal-injury cases. Wade also serves as an associate judge in Marietta Municipal Court. He is a graduate of John Marshall School of Law and received the Justice Robert Benham Community Service Award from the State Bar of Georgia. He has served several terms on the board of trustees of the Cobb Bar Association, is a member of the Cobb Prayer Breakfast Committee, the Marietta Kiwanis Club and serves as a youth mentor. If elected, Wade would be the first black person ever to serve on the Cobb Superior Court bench.

via The Marietta Daily Journal – Three in the ring to be next on the bench.