Athens attorney Lisa Lott says that she will be a candidate for the May 2018 election for Judge of Superior Court in Athens-Clarke and Oconee Counties. The current officeholder, Chief Judge David Sweat, announced his retirement from the bench earlier this year.
Lott, in a news release, says she has worked in the Western Judicial Circuit Public Defender's Office since 2000. She has also served as a prosecutor in Gwinnett County, and has been a staff attorney with the Georgia Indigent Defense Council and the Council of Juvenile Court Judges. She has also worked in private practice as a civil litigator, specializing in family law.
With Sweat's retirement occurring before the end of his term, the Governor is expected to appoint a temporary replacement, who will serve the remainder of Sweat's term. An election will be held in May 2018. Lott has been nominated to the Governor as a candidate to serve the rest of Sweat's term, and she will run in the 2018 election as well.
“I'm excited to be a candidate in the May 2018 election,” Lott said. “I have a vision for the role of judge that builds on the work done by Judge Sweat and his colleagues. A judge must be fair, impartial, above partisan politics, and deeply involved with every corner of this community. My work as a public defender and as a prosecutor over the last 23 years has given me an understanding of our values as a community, and I look forward to bringing that understanding to the bench.”
Lott holds a BA in rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from Emory University School of Law. She lives in Athens with her husband and two children.