Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia on July 25, 2012, by Governor Nathan Deal and was sworn in on September 4, 2012.

Prior to her appointment, Judge Branch was a partner in the litigation department at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta where her practice consisted of commercial litigation and government affairs.

Judge Branch was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1968 and was raised in Fulton County. She attended and graduated from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994). During law school, Judge Branch served as the Notes and Comments Editor for the Emory Law Journal and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a judicial clerk to Judge J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP as an associate in the litigation department.

From 2004-2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U. S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.

Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. She also serves as the Co-Chair of the Homeland Security and National Defense Committee of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia's Appellate Practice Section and is a Master in the Lamar American Inn of Court. She was selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers in 2012.