Newly elected Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Ken Hodges was officially sworn in before he started work the first of the year. So Wednesday’s investiture ceremony was really more of a “thank you” to those who helped him win a contested statewide election for the open seat with nearly 70 percent of the vote.

The crowd filled the seats and lined the walls in the back of the courtroom. The thank yous were abundant, including friends and family from his South Georgia hometown of Albany, new colleagues on the state’s intermediate appellate court, justices on the Georgia Supreme Court and the entire State Bar of Georgia, of which Hodges currently serves as president.