Margaret Spencer, now senior assistant solicitor general, will become a judge on the Clayton County State Court, Gov. Nathan Deal announced Friday.
Spencer will succeed Judge John Carbo III, who has retired. She will take the office upon being sworn in, the governor's press office said.
A graduate of Kennesaw State University and John Marshall Law School, Spencer first worked as a prosecutor in Henry County, then moved to Clayton County in 2009 after the election of Solicitor General Tasha Mosley. The two had been trial partners in Henry County, Spencer said Friday.
"I've always strived as a prosecutor to be fair," Spencer said. "That carries over to being a good judge."
Before deciding to go to law school as a mother of two in her 30s Spencer worked as a probation officer. It was then that she came to observe and admire the judges before whom she appeared in Clayton County, she said. Being a judge was part of her 10-year plan when she graduated law school in 2005.
"I'm just slightly outside that," she said Friday. But her unusual route has made her empathetic, she added. "I can understand life struggles."
Spencer said the governor called Thursday to offer her the position. "He said he knew I'd do a good job," she said. "I told him I would and that I wanted to be a part of his great legacy of appointments."
Deal has made an impressive number of judicial appointments around the state more than half the trial judges and appellate judges now serving. He expanded the Georgia Court of Appeals from 12 to 15, and the Georgia Supreme Court from seven to nine, staffing the growth.
For more, see "How Gov. Deal Reshaped the Judiciary in Georgia."