A former Representative is being sworn in to serve on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. An investiture ceremony will be held for Judge Cory Wilson on May 20 at 4 p.m. in Jackson. Governor Phil Bryant, who appointed Judge Wilson to the Court of Appeals, will speak along with Jackson attorney Michael Dawkins and former Hinds County Circuit Judge Robert Gibbs.
Supreme Court Justice David Ishee will administer the ceremonial oath of office. Judge Wilson was originally sworn in on February 15th. Governor Bryant appointed Judge Wilson to a vacancy on the Court of Appeals after the Governor appointed then-Court of Appeals Chief Judge Kenneth Griffis to the Supreme Court.
Judge Wilson, 48, will serve the remainder of an unexpired term that will end Jan. 2, 2023. He resigned from the House of Representatives on Feb. 14th to accept the appointment to the Court of Appeals. He served House District 73, representing part of Madison County, since 2016. He and his family live near Flora.
Judge Wilson is a native of Moss Point. He graduated from Moss Point High School in 1988. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, summa cum laude, in economics from the University of Mississippi School of Business in 1992. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1995. He served as a law clerk to Judge Emmett R. Cox of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
From 2005 to 2006, Wilson served as a White House Fellow. During the Fellowship, he was a special assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. As part of the White House Fellowship, he traveled on policy related trips across the United States, Europe, North Africa, and Latin America.
From 2014 to 2015, Wilson served as senior advisor and counsel to State Treasurer Lynn Fitch and practiced law part-time. He was chief of staff to Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann from 2008 to 2011, managing day to day operations and facilitating policymaking in elections administration, securities, and charities regulation, and reform of LLC and business laws, administrative procedures, and public lands.
Wilson’s law practice included business, commercial and construction litigation, elections law and appellate practice in state and federal courts. He most recently practiced at the firm of Jernigan Copeland Attorneys, PLLC, in Ridgeland. Before joining Jernigan Copeland in 2016, Wilson established and managed the Jackson office of Heidelberg, Steinberger, Colmer & Burrow, expanding the firm from offices on the Gulf Coast. Prior to his work with the Secretary of State’s office, Wilson was an equity partner in the Jackson office of Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP. He began practicing law with Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A. in 1996.
