Kenneth B. Hodges III

Professional career

• Kenneth Bryant Hodges III is an incumbent judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals, serving since January 1, 2019, and re‐elected statewide in 2024
• Private Practice: After leaving the DA’s office in 2008, he worked in transactional and litigation law, then founded Ken Hodges Law in Albany and Atlanta in 2015
• Judge Hodges was elected District Attorney of the Dougherty Judicial Circuit in 1996 at the age of 30
• Prosecutorial Service: Elected District Attorney of Dougherty County, GA in 1996 at age 30, serving 12 years
• He has been a court appointed receiver and a mediator

Education

Additional information

• 1, 2019, and was elected again state-wide in 2024.
• Judge Hodges was elected President of the State Bar of Georgia (2018-2019), the first judge to lead the organization in its history.
• Bar Leadership: Elected President of the State Bar of Georgia (2018–2019), the first judge to lead the organization
• was elected to the Court of Appeals by the citizens of Georgia in 2018, winning every county in the state with wide bipartisan support in a contested election for a rare open seat on the Court.
• During his DA tenure, Hodges was instrumental in the 2002 prosecution of Sidney Dorsey, former DeKalb County Sheriff, for ordering the assassination of his successor, Derwin Brown
• With deep experience in diverse practice areas, Judge Hodges has served as a prosecutor, defended criminal cases, and been on both sides of a dispute in civil matters.
• Named District Attorney of the Year for Georgia and held the role of President of the Georgia District Attorney’s Association
• He was elected President of the DA’s Association and also served as Chairman of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council; he was appointed by Governor Roy Barnes as Chairman of the Legal Loan Forgiveness Task Force and as a member of the Certainty in Sentencing Commission.
• Kenneth (Ken) Bryant Hodges, III
• As an attorney, he was admitted to practice with the United States Supreme Court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Northern and Middle Federal District Courts of Georgia, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Georgia Court of Appeals.
• Leadership Georgia, a graduate of Leadership Albany, past Secretary
• board member of The Urban League of Greater Atlanta, past President of the Artesian City Sertoma Club, former member of the Albany Rotary Club, past Chairman of the Easter Seals of Southwest Georgia, past Chairman of the Southwest Georgia Chiefs and Sheriffs Association, past board member of the Albany Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the boards of the American Heart Association and the Albany Civil Rights Institute
• Judge Hodges is a member of the Georgia Court of Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court, which has statewide jurisdiction over most cases except those reserved for the Georgia Supreme Court.
• He cleared a backlog of eight death penalty cases, created a child prosecution unit, a child advocacy center, a truancy program, and a sexual assault unit.