Judge Penny Freesemann, Chatham County Superior Court. (Courtesy photo)

Gov. Zell Miller appointed Penny Haas Freesemann to Chatham County State Court in 1993 and elevated her to the Chatham County Superior Court two years later. This year she became the Superior Court's chief judge.

Freesemann received her undergraduate degree in 1975 from Emory University and her law degree from the University of Georgia in 1978.

When did you first start thinking of becoming a lawyer?

I wish I  could say that there was some moment, some particularly dramatic experience, that spurred me on to law school. Alas, I think it was a combination of having grown up with a father who was a lawyer, coupled with a looming decision of what to do with my college history degree after graduation.

But perhaps that is the personal experience for me. My dad was the Base JAG officer for most of my life. I loved and admired him greatly, and I remember him always saying that you could do anything you wanted with a law degree. And my history degree came about because writing was my strength. So I suppose it is hardly a surprise that I ended up in law school.

What did you like best and least about your practice of law before joining the bench?

I practiced law for 15 years, and what I liked best was the variety. I came along at a time when general practice could truly be general practice. I handled criminal cases, car wreck cases, divorces, Social Security issues, wills, landlord/tenant disputes, small claims, big claims, bankruptcies, contract claims, employment discrimination cases and everything in between. Every day was something different. I also had the good fortune to practice around some real giants of the bar, real personalities, who taught me to think on my feet.

What I suppose I liked least was the constant pressure, the knowledge that sometimes you are your client's last best hope to get justice or find closure.

What prompted you to seek a job as a judge?

They say timing is everything, and I had the great fortune to come along at just the right time. There were openings on the Savannah bench in the early mid 1990s, in both the state and superior courts. And so, even though it was a big leap to think I could ever achieve such a position, I decided it was now or never.

I also was beginning to recognize that my strengths lay in looking for the big picture answer to issues and not so much in advocating for a particular side. The minute I started with a case, I was already mapping out the answer, something my clients were not always ready to deal with early on. What I think is that I am a far better judge than I was a lawyer. What I know is that I am much more at peace with my role as judge.

How has technology affected the practice of law in your courtroom?

There are, of course a million things one could say about the use of technology for case management, courtroom presentation, legal research and the like. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, and all of it has been both a whirlwind of change and a slow evolution to incorporate it into the courtroom. But what this question brought immediately to my mind was the effect of one particular technological advancement that forever changed courtroom practice for me.

I can remember handling criminal cases, both as a lawyer and as a judge, that involved crime scene diagrams and photographs. But I also remember, like it was yesterday, the first time I saw the body cam footage of a crime scene, where the police officer came upon a scene with two victims, one shot and living, the other shot and dead.

In the past, there would have been some gruesome photographs and a lot of diagrams showing you where the people and bodies were located and where the bullets were found. But now, in this case and in many others to come, you could hear the pain in the living victim's voice from a shattered collarbone, I believe. You could almost smell the scene. You got a clear and instantaneous understanding of what had occurred.

Interestingly, I also remember quite vividly the police officer's calm and caring demeanor with the living victim, as he tried to comfort her while waiting for EMS. This was way more than simply hearing a bland description of events from the witness stand. It was akin to being there.

What keeps you up at night regarding your work?

I worry about custody decisions and what is happening to children in the months and years after my decision. I watch helplessly sometimes when parents are so angry at one another, that they tear their innocent children apart.

But probably what keeps me up at night most consistently regarding my work is the endless onslaught of mentally ill individuals parading through our jails and our criminal justice system. Some of them, of course, belong there. But the vast majority do not. And even those who do belong often spend way more time incarcerated than would a defendant who committed the same crime, had the same criminal history, but was not mentally ill. The criminal justice system was never equipped for this onslaught. We judges and lawyers were never trained for the task, and so we are simply doing the best we can. But it is definitely not pretty.

What habits would you like to see lawyers who appear before you change?

The point. Get to it.

You've sat on the Supreme Court when a justice had to recuse. What did that experience show you about the appellate system that reviews your decisions?

I loved every minute of the experience. Becoming a judge made me step back from advocating for a particular side and instead look at the bigger picture in an attempt to figure out the answer. Sitting as an appellate judge made me step even further back into the legal issues and see an even bigger picture. I came away from the experience with a deep respect for the justices who sit on the Georgia Supreme Court, both as to their collegiality and warmth, as well as their intellect and thoughtful approach to their decision-making process.

You work with Chatham County's mental health and veterans courts. What do lawyers and the general public misunderstand about litigants in these courts?

I've been the presiding judge of these accountability courts since their inception, the mental health court in 2007 and the veterans court in 2011. I suspect the biggest misunderstanding is a belief that a defendant in one of these courts is getting away with something, has somehow beaten the system. But what people may not realize is that these men and women have signed up for two years of really hard work, dealing with the issues that brought them into the criminal justice system in the first place. For the average mental health court participant, for example, this usually requires daily attendance at treatment to learn about their illness, along with random drug and alcohol screens looking for both the absence of illegal drugs and alcohol, as well as the presence of prescribed mental health medications. It also includes weekly attendance at court and probation, fulfilling community services hours and, to the extent possible, working toward a GED (or college in some cases) and a job.

Is there anything personal you'd like to add? 

Becoming the chief judge here in Savannah has been a great honor. I cannot say enough good things about the other five members of our Superior Court bench. While we may not agree on every issue, we are respectful of one another. We meet regularly and are able to reach consensus on matters affecting the court. The beauty of it, we also have a lot of diversity amongst us, which lets us learn from different perspectives.