2010 – 2012
Judge Keith R. Blackwell was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue on November 1, 2010. He served at the Court of Appeals until July 2012, when he was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. He retired from judicial service in November 2020 and returned to the private practice of law in Atlanta.
The son of a non-commissioned officer in the Georgia Air National Guard and a teacher of American history, Judge Blackwell was raised in Ball Ground. After graduating as valedictorian from Cherokee High School in Canton, he was awarded a University of Georgia Foundation Fellowship. He attended the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia, where he was enrolled in the Honors Program and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated summa cum laude in 1996 with a degree in political science and as a First Honor Graduate. Judge Blackwell then attended the School of Law at the University of Georgia, where he served as Senior Editor of the Georgia Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He graduated summa cum laude from the School of Law in 1999, again as First Honor Graduate.
Following his graduation from law school, Judge Blackwell served as a law clerk to Judge J.L. Edmondson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Judge Blackwell was engaged in the private practice of law at Alston & Bird LLP and Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs LLP in Atlanta. His private practice was focused on government investigations, consumer class actions, and complex commercial and banking litigation. He also served for several years as an assistant district attorney in Cobb County. Following his retirement from the Supreme Court, Judge Blackwell rejoined Alston & Bird as a senior counsel.
Throughout his legal career, Judge Blackwell has been active in a number of professional and legal organizations. He is a member of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and he has served as president and a member of the board of advisors for its Atlanta chapter. He is a member of the Cobb Bar Association, and he is a master of the Clarke-Carley American Inn of Court and the Columbus Inn of Court. He also has served as chair of the Supreme Court’s Lawyer Competency Task Force, chair of the Georgia Commission on Interpreters, a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission, a member of the Appellate Jurisdiction Review Commission, an advisor to the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the adoption of the new Evidence Code, and as a judicial advisor and liaison to the Judicial Compensation Commission, the executive board of the State Bar of Georgia, the Office of Bar Admissions, the Board of Bar Examiners, and the Board to Determine the Fitness of Bar Applicants. In addition, he has served on various law-related committees of the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Judge Blackwell lives in Cobb County, where he and his wife, Angela, have raised their three daughters. Their family attends Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Marietta, where Judge Blackwell is an elder.