On May 21, 2013, Judge Willie J. Lovett, Jr. began serving as a Juvenile Court Judge for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit in Fulton County, Georgia. Judge Lovett will preside over all juvenile matters originating in Fulton County and will provide leadership to the Juvenile Court as it prepares to implement Georgia’s new Juvenile Code, which will become law on January 1, 2014. Judge Lovett also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, where he teaches Georgia Practice and Procedure and Local Government Law. In 2012, Judge Lovett became certified by the American Bar Association and the National Association of Counsel for Children as a Child Welfare Law Specialist (“CWLS”). Judge Lovett is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Counsel for Children and the Georgia Association of Counsel for Children.
Prior to this appointment as Juvenile Judge, Judge Lovett served as the Director of the Fulton County Child Attorney’s Office. In that role, he managed the attorneys, investigators, social workers and administrative staff, ensuring that constitutional and statutory mandates are met utilizing the American Bar Association Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases, (NACC Revised Version). Judge Lovett has also served as Deputy County Attorney for the Fulton County Attorney’s Office where he was lead litigation counsel for Fulton County in the Kenny A. v. Perdue litigation, originally filed in 2002. Prior to joining the Fulton County Attorney’s Office, Judge Lovett clerked for the Honorable Joseph W. Hatchett, former Chief Judge of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, served as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Atlanta’s Law Department, and worked as an associate at several Atlanta law firms.
In 1985, Judge Lovett earned his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, cum laude with Distinction in the major from Yale University, where he received the 1985 Roosevelt Thompson Prize for commitment to public service. In 1988, Judge Lovett earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where he served as a Comments Editor on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and in 1991, he earned his Master of Laws in Litigation from Emory Law School. Judge Lovett is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, the Georgia Supreme Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Judge Lovett is a native of Savannah, Georgia, currently resides in Fairburn, Georgia and is married to Seletha R. Butler, Esq.