CHIEF JUSTICE LYN STUART
Chief Justice Lyn Stuart is a native of Atmore, Alabama, where she attended public schools and graduated from Escambia County High School. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and education from Auburn University with high honor in 1977 and her Juris Doctorate degree from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1980. She served as secretary of the Student Bar Association, was a member of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Board, and received the Dean’s Service Award at graduation.
Upon graduation from law school, Chief Justice Stuart served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama under former Attorney General Charles Graddick. She also served as executive assistant to the Commissioner and Special Assistant Attorney General for the Alabama Department of Corrections. Upon moving to Baldwin County, she served as an Assistant District Attorney for Baldwin County on the staff of District Attorney David Whetstone.
In 1988, she was elected District Judge, and she was reelected in 1994. In addition to her district-court civil and criminal caseloads, she served as the juvenile court judge for Baldwin County. Governor Fob James appointed Chief Justice Stuart to the circuit bench in January 1997. She was elected, without opposition, to a six-year term in 1998. As a circuit court judge, she handled civil and criminal cases. She served as a specially appointed family-court judge for most of her 12 years on the trial-court bench.
Chief Justice Stuart was elected to serve as an Associate Justice on the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000; she was reelected in 2006 and 2012. As the Senior Associate Justice, she became Acting Chief Justice on May 6, 2016. On April 26, 2017, Governor Kay Ivey appointed her Chief Justice.
At its invitation, Chief Justice Stuart served as a faculty advisor at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. She is a past president of the Alabama Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She has served as a speaker for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, training judges and other professionals on the handling of child-abuse and neglect cases. She served as president of the Blue Ridge Institute for Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 2002.
Chief Justice Stuart and her husband, George, have two sons, Tucker and Shepard, and a daughter, Kelly. They are grandparents of two grandchildren, Sophie and Thomas. Chief Justice Stuart is a member and past president of several civic organizations: the Heritage Junior Women’s Club, the Bay Minette Kiwanis Club, and the Jubilee Woman’s Club. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Federation of Women’s Clubs for almost 20 years. The Stuarts are members of the First United Methodist Church of Bay Minette, where Chief Justice Stuart serves as a member of the Church Council, teaches an adult Sunday School class, sings in the chancel choir, and plays handbells.
Bio taken from The Alabama Supreme Court website.