Judge Stephen Louis A. Dillard

Presiding Judge Stephen Louis A. Dillard was appointed as the 73rd judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia on November 1, 2010, by Governor Sonny Perdue. Prior to his appointment, Judge Dillard was in private practice with James, Bates, Pope & Spivey, serving as chairman of the firm’s appellate practice group; served as law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; and worked as an associate for Stone & Baxter. In 2012, 2018, and 2024, he was elected to serve full six-year terms on the Court of Appeals. On July 1, 2017, Judge Dillard was sworn in as the 30th Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for a two-year term, which ended on June 30, 2019. He currently serves as the presiding judge of the Court’s Fourth Division, and will begin serving as the presiding judge of the Third Division in 2026.

Judge Dillard is a proud graduate of Samford University (B.A., 1992), Mississippi College School of Law (J.D., with honors, 1996), and Duke University Law School (LL.M. in Judicial Studies, 2025). Most importantly, he has been married to his college sweetheart, the former Krista McDaniel, for thirty-one years. They have three children and are parishioners at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Macon, Georgia.