At 36, Sarah Hawkins Warren is the youngest of the short list nominees. But it would be hard to  beat her credentials.

Warren followed in the footsteps of Georgia Supreme Court Justices Nels Peterson and Britt Grant to the job of solicitor general in the Office of the Attorney General. Like Grant, she also worked in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis before moving back home to Atlanta. And like her predecessors, she took the reins in the long-running water wars between Georgia and Florida. Georgia prevailed in a trial before a U.S. Supreme Court special master last year, although the high court this year sent the case back for more review.