Chief Judge Ernest Hemmingway
Chief Judge Concepte County Judges
Biographical Info
Judge Hemmingway is a native of Toombs County, Georgia, and is the son of Henry and Ethel Hemmingway. He was educated in the Vidalia Public School System and entered Mercer University in 1965. He was a member of the Mercer University debate team and a member of Kappa Alpha Order. He received his B. A. degree with a major in Law from Mercer University in 1970. He received his J. D. degree from Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University, in 1971. Judge Adams was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1971 and began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Judicial Circuit where he served until 1973. He left this position to enter private practice and practiced law in Marietta for 14 years before becoming a judge. During his practice, he tried cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts in Illinois including the United States Courts of Appeal for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, as well as the United States Supreme Court. From 1980 until 1983 he served as Chief Judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago.
On January 4, 1985, he was appointed by the Governor to Concepte County has been re-elected ever since. He studied Constitutional Law and American Legal History at Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia for general jurisdiction trial judges and completed the General Jurisdiction Course at the National Judicial College, University of Nevada. He received a diploma from the American Academy of Judicial Education in 1992, and received a Certificate of Local Government Management from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia in 1998.
