Judge Glenda Hatchett

Judge Glenda A. Hatchett is not only a world-renowned judge, but a prominent attorney with more than 40 years of experience which encompasses a multitude of legal responsibilities.

Currently, Hatchett is Of Counsel with the law firm of Stewart Miller Simmons based in Atlanta, Georgia, handling cases throughout the nation, specializing in wrongful deaths, catastrophic injuries, maternal deaths, tractor-trailer accidents, premises liability, products liability, sexual assault, and catastrophic police misconduct cases.

A graduate of Mt. Holyoke College and Emory University School of Law, where she was an Earl Warren Scholar, Hatchett completed a prestigious federal clerkship in the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, where she was the first Black clerk in that federal court. Hatchett then spent nearly 10 years at Delta Air Lines, where she was the airline's highest-ranking woman of color worldwide. As Senior Attorney, she represented Delta Air Lines in labor/personnel, antitrust litigation, and commercial acquisitions. As Public Relations Manager, she supervised global crisis management and handled media relations for 50 U.S. cities, Europe and Asia. Ebony magazine recognized her as one of the nation's most outstanding women in corporate America.

Hatchett was appointed to a judgeship in 1990, becoming Georgia's first Black Chief Judge of a State Court in the state's history. There, she presided over Fulton County's Juvenile Court, one of the largest juvenile court systems in the nation. Hatchett gained national recognition for her groundbreaking initiatives for juvenile reform and received several awards, including the United States Justice Department's Roscoe Pound Award, which is the Department's highest award for Criminal Justice Reform, as well as The NAACP's Justice Thurgood Marshall Award.

Hatchett served as Co-Counsel in the civil wrongful death case of Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2016, resulting in the judgement of $36M in damages to Brown’s estate. She gained global attention while representing the family of Philando Castille following his death in 2016. Philando Castille’s death marked the first time in the history of the state of Minnesota that a police officer was indicted for killing a citizen. During that time, Hatchett strongly advocated that a special prosecutor be appointed to seek an indictment against the police officer who killed Castille. She was also instrumental in having the U.S. Attorney open an investigation for racial profiling at traffic stops for the entire state of Minneapolis.

She founded Hatchett Consulting Group, specializing with over 40 years of combined experience as an attorney, judge, crisis management expert, mediator, and television talent in legal issues and consulting in the areas of crisis communications and risk management.

Hatchett has served on the Boards of three Fortune 500 companies – HCA, The Gap Inc., and ServiceMaster Company.

While on the Board of Directors of HCA, she was Chair of the Ethics, Compliance, and Quality of Care Committee. She was also a member of the HCA board's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Hatchett was a member of the five-person special board committee that negotiated HCA's $32.7 billion leveraged buyout, paving the way for the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain to go private. At the time, the buyout was the largest leveraged buyout in U.S. corporate history.

While a Board Director for The Gap Inc., Hatchett served on the Governance, Nominating, and Social Responsibility Committee and the Compensation and Management Development Committee. Hatchett also served as a member of the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons' Board of Advisors and was a consultant to the National Basketball Association on pressing legal and social issues.

The State Bar of Georgia honored her with the Social Justice Advocacy and Action Award; she was only the fourth person ever to receive this award. She was named Distinguished Alumna at Mt. Holyoke College, later granting her an honorary degree. Her other alma mater, Emory University Law School, named her Outstanding Alumni of the Year. Emory University also presented her with the highest award given to university alumni, the Emory Medal. She is a member of both the Georgia Bar and the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Hatchett has presented leadership sessions for various companies, including PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Georgia-Pacific, Wal-Mart, and Hospital Corporation of America Inc. (HCA). Additionally, she frequently lectures throughout the country and has keynoted several national conferences, including the Diversity Conference in the U.S. Senate, Office Depot's Success Strategies for Businesswomen Conference, Colgate Palmolive's Multicultural Summit, the Minority Employers' Conference at Newell Rubbermaid, Microsoft's Education Summit, AT&T's Diversity Summit, Home Depot's Women's History Speaker's Series and Black Enterprise's Entrepreneurs Conference. She has also moderated several forums, including the CEO Forum on Diversity Leadership at the United States Congress and Wells Fargo's Forum on the Economic Impact on Colleges and Universities. Hatchett served as a guest faculty member, lecturing on Corporate Ethics at the University of Vanderbilt University’s Directors’ College, presented by Vanderbilt Law School and the Owen Graduate School of Management.

Hatchett presided over the two-time Emmy-nominated show "Judge Hatchett," which is in its 23rd season of national syndication (Sony Pictures Television). Judge Hatchett won a Prism Award for Best Unscripted Non-Fiction Series. With appearances on the Today show and local broadcasts, Hatchett has also been an esteemed guest-host on "The View" and a guest anchor on Court-TV and BBC News. She continues to provide legal commentary on networks such as CNN, MSNBC and FOX. Most recently, Hatchett has returned to TV with her new television court series, "The Verdict With Judge Hatchett." She presides over the series as a follow-up to Sony's long-running "Judge Hatchett."

Hatchett is also the author of the National Best Sellers, "Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say" (Harper Collins, 2003) and "Dare to Take Charge" (Center Street / Hachette Book Group, 2010).

Hatchett has consistently shown her commitment to community development through her service on various nonprofit boards, including the National Board of Governors of the Boys and Girl Club of America, the Leadership Circle for the After School Alliance, and the Advisory Board for the Women's Resource Center at Spelman College. She formerly served on the Board of Advisors for Play Pumps International. Presently, Hatchett serves as the national spokesperson for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit volunteer organization that trains volunteers to represent abused and neglected children and is the recipient of their President's Award.