Judge Kim Childs of Cobb County Superior Court won a race for an open seat in 2016, surprising erself by garnering 55% of the vote in a three-way contest that was expected to go to a runoff.

Childs grew up on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, in Habersham County, where she went to work at the local McDonald’s at the age of 15. After earning a criminal justice degree from North Georgia College in Dahlonega, she worked nearly three years as a jail guard for the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Then she became a paralegal and used that job to put herself through law school at Georgia State University. She handled complex business litigation for five years with Wargo & French and Hunton & Williams in Atlanta. She started her own firm in 2007 with an office near Interstate 285 and West Paces Ferry Road in Cobb.