Chief Judge Renata D. Turner is a graduate of Therrell High School and the University of Georgia where she earned a B.A. in psychology. She worked for five years as a caseworker for the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services before entering law school in 1986. She received her Juris Doctorate from the Southern California University School of Law. Judge Turner became the Assistant Dean of Pro Bono and Experiential Learning at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School in 2013. While at John Marshall, Judge Turner annually organized a Youth and the Law Summit and a Re-Entry Forum for formerly incarcerated citizens.
In partnership with the court, she continues to hold an annual Youth and the Law Summit. Judge Turner is the lead judge for the School Pathways Project, a collaboration between the court and the Atlanta and Fulton school systems to close the school-to-prison pipeline. Judge Turner also presides over CHOICES, the court’s teen drug court. She was recently admitted as Center for Juvenile Justice Reform Fellow for her work with school-justice partnerships.
Judge Turner has served as vice chair of the Fulton County Child Attorney’s board; a committee advisor for the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children; and an executive board member of the Charles Weltner Family Law Inn of Court. She served as president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys in 1997. Judge Turner is currently a member of the National Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges, a member of the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution, and serves as a board member of the Andrew and Walter Young YMCA.
Judicial Assistant: Faye Payne
Judicial Case Manager: Laynado Bell
Staff Attorney: Jodie Wasson