Governor Phil Bryant has appointed new Court of Appeals Judge Cory T. Wilson to fill a vacancy on the court. Wilson,48, will serve the remainder of an unexpired term that will end on January 2nd, 2023. He will take the District 3, Position 2 judgeship previously held by T. Kenneth Griffis.
Wilson will resign from the House of Representatives on February 14th to accept the appointment of the Court of Appeals. He has served House District 73 representing part of Madison County, since 2016. He lives near Flora. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Donna M. Barnes will administer the oath in the Court of Appeals En Banc Courtroom.
From 2014‑2015, Wilson served as senior advisor and counsel to State Treasurer Lynn Fitch and had a part-time private law practice. 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.
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.
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 Birmingham-based Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP. He began practicing law with Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A. in 1996.
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.
Wilson is a member of The Mississippi Bar and the Madison County Bar Association. Among other civic activities, he was chair of the Mississippi Council on Economic Education, was active in the Madison County Business League & Foundation, and served on the board of directors of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. He is a 2001 graduate of the Leadership Mississippi Program, during which he met his wife Stephanie. They have one son.
