Black, Jennifer B.

G. Alan Blackburn, former Georgia Court of Appeals Judge, joined the firm in November, 2010 and will be leading Balch's Appellate Practice in Georgia.

Mr. Blackburn was born in East Bend, North Carolina. He served four years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force. After the Air Force, he attended John Marshall Law School and earned his LL.B. (bachelor of laws) degree in 1968. He later earned his Masters of Law Degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 2001.

Upon admission to the Georgia Bar in 1972, Mr. Blackburn began his legal career when he opened his law office in Decatur, Georgia. He practiced private law in various locations for 20 years. During part of this time, he also worked as an Administrative Law Judge for the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance. He was a charter member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has served on the State Chapter’s Board of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse. He is a former member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association and the Georgia Association of Administrative Law Judges. 

In 1992, he was elected to a six-year term on the Georgia Court of Appeals.  He was reelected to another six-year term without opposition in 1998 and 2004. He was elected by his peers to the office of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in January 2001 where he served through December 2002.  Mr. Blackburn decided not to seek re-election when his term expired in mid-2010.

In August 1997, the Georgia Trend Magazine selected Mr. Blackburn as one of the top forty fastest-rising public servants in Georgia.  He was also selected as the Statesman of the Year by the American Legion Post 51 in 1998 and 2001.  Judge Blackburn formerly served as a master of the Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law Inn of Court (American Inn of Court 302).  He has previously served as a member of the Georgia Courts Automation Commission, the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, and was a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia from 1999-2002. 

In the past years, Mr. Blackburn has served as Chairman of the Cobb County Salvation Army Advisory Board and Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Horizons Ministries (Mountain Top Boys’ Homes) in Walker County.