Nels S.D. Peterson

Professional career

• Nels Stefan David Peterson is an American judge and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, a position he assumed on April 1, 2025 after being elected by his peers
• Unanimously selected as presiding justice in 2022 and elected chief justice in February 2025 for a six-year term
• Chief Justice Nels Peterson was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2016, and was elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024
• Law clerk to Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. (11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals)

Education

Additional information

• Georgia Supreme Court since January 1, 2017, appointed by then-Governor Nathan Deal.
• 2026-02-18T21:22:51-05:00
• His appointment to the Supreme Court followed a 2016 legislative expansion from 7 to 9 justices
• Born September 17, 1978.
• SC Admin
• Before entering state government, Nels practiced at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and clerked for Chief Judge William H.
• Graduate of Kennesaw State University and Harvard Law School.
• of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
• He previously served in a variety of other roles in Georgia state government, including as judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, general counsel for the University System of Georgia, Georgia’s first solicitor general in the Attorney General’s Office, and executive counsel to the Governor.
• Peterson is a member of the Federalist Society