On Monday, Chief Judge Willie E. Lockette of the Dougherty County Judicial Circuit, appointed Leisa Green Johnson as the new probate judge in Dougherty County. Johnson pioneered the first statewide Public Defender’s Office in the Dougherty Judicial Circuit in 2004.

A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland at College Park. She received her Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University National Law Center in Washington, D.C., and was admitted to the Mary- land Bar in 1988, the District of Columbia Bar in 1989, and the Georgia Bar in 1992. In 2008, she was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Prior to relocating to her mother’s hometown of Albany, Georgia in 1999, Johnson practiced civil law as an assistant county attorney and worked as a public defender in Maryland. After relocat- ing to Albany, she served for four years as an assistant district attorney under the leadership of Kenneth B. Hodges, III. She later started a successful private law practice, focusing primarily on criminal defense work throughout Southwest Georgia.

Pioneering the first statewide Public Defender’s Office in the Dougherty Judicial Circuit in July of 2004, Johnson was tasked with the constitutional mandate to provide competent, effective and zealous legal counsel for indigent individuals. In addition to serving as an experienced trial law- yer, Johnson managed an annual operating budget of $1.5 million, as well as a staff comprised of lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries, and investigators.

A former vice president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Johnson is also a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, a published au- thor, and a member of New Birth Fellowship Church in Albany, Georgia.