Presiding Judge G. Alan Blackburn was born May 6, 1939 in East Bend, N.C. He attended the public schools of Atlanta, Georgia, Yadkin County, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.

After serving four years on active duty in the United States Air Force, Presiding Judge Blackburn returned to Atlanta and entered John Marshall Law School. He received his LL.B. in 1968. He received his Masters of Law Degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 2001.

Upon admission to the Georgia Bar in 1972, Chief Judge Blackburn opened his law office in Decatur, Georgia, and later maintained offices in Fulton County before moving to Cobb County in 1985. He engaged in the private practice of civil and criminal law for twenty years and served as an Administrative Law Judge for the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance before being elected to a six-year term on the Court of Appeals in 1992. He was re-elected to another six-year term without opposition in 1998 and 2004. He was elected by his peers to the office of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in January 2001 where he served through December 2002.

Presiding Judge Blackburn has served as Chairman of the Cobb County Salvation Army Advisory Board; Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Horizons Ministries (Mountain Top Boys' Home) in Walker County; and has served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse - Georgia Chapter.

Presiding Judge Blackburn was a charter member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is a former member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association and the Georgia Association of Administrative Law Judges. He is presently a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia and the Cobb County Bar Association.

In the August 1997 issue of Georgia Trend Magazine, Presiding Judge Blackburn was selected as one of the top forty fastest-rising public servants in Georgia. He was also selected as the statesman of the year by American Legion Post 51 in 1998 and 2001. Presiding Judge Blackburn formerly served as a master of the Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law Inn of Court (American Inn of Court 302). He has previously served as a member of the Georgia Courts Automation Commission, the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism, and was a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia from 1999 - 2002.