The Superior Court judges of the Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit have named Christopher Willis the county's second full-time Juvenile Court Judge and reappointed J. Russell Jackson to the Juvenile Court Judge bench.
The swearing in for both is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday, August 13. The ceremony will take place in Courtroom 501 in the Forsyth County Courthouse.
For the past 23 years, Judge Willis has been in private practice focusing on criminal and civil litigation. A registered mediator, he has served as an associate magistrate for Forsyth County Magistrate Court since January 2015.
Judge Jackson began his legal career as a law clerk for Bell-Forsyth Superior Court Judges Frank C. Mills, III and Richard S. Gault. He practiced law until he was appointed as the first Forsyth County judge to serve fulltime as a Juvenile Court judge. Judge Jackson has served on the Juvenile Court bench for the past 19 years.
While the Juvenile Court previously held only one full-time judgeship, the Superior Court recently established a second full-time judgeship.