As Tennessee prepares for its Supreme Court elections, which will be held on August 4, The Tennessee Star is profiling each of the judges as part of a series.
Uniquely, Tennessee’s Supreme Court is charged with choosing the state’s next attorney general, who will replace outgoing Attorney General Herbert Slatery III.
Supreme Court Justice Holly Kirby is a native of Memphis who has served on the bench since 2014. She earned an undergraduate degree from Memphis State University and a law degree from Memphis State School of Law.
Upon graduation from law school in 1982, Kirby clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She then joined a private law firm in Memphis called Burch, Porter & Johnson, and made partner in 1990.
“Burch, Porter & Johnson provides comprehensive legal services across a wide range of litigation, business and transactional practice,” that firm’s website says. “The firm’s clients span a broad spectrum: from multi-million dollar corporations seeking counsel to negotiate complex transactions to individuals dealing with the most sensitive personal issues.”
The firm is more than 100 years old, and Kirby served was its first female partner.
“Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Kirby served for almost 19 years on the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Tennessee’s intermediate appellate court for civil cases,” according to her biography on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s website. “She represented a gender milestone on the Court of Appeals—when she was appointed in 1995, she became the first woman ever to sit on that Court.”
Since 1995, when she began her first term on the Court of Appeals, Kirby has won five straight statewide elections, in 1996, 1998, 2006, 2014, and 2016.
“Justice Kirby was chosen as Outstanding Young Alumna for the University of Memphis in 1996, Outstanding Alumna for the University of Memphis College of Engineering in 2002, and Special Distinguished Alumna for the School of Law in 2016,” according to her biography.
Elected judges at all statewide levels serve six-year terms in Tennessee. It is one of 22 states that will hold judicial elections in 2022.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Holly Kirby” by Tennessee State Courts.
