Georgia Supreme Court Justice Carol Hunstein recalled in a recent conversation exactly when she decided to become a judge.
It was 1984. She had been practicing law for eight years and had built up a busy solo practice after finding that law firms wouldn’t hire her. Had it not been for one particular judge, she might never have decided to run—against him. He called her “little lady” in front of jurors, while he referred to her opponents—all men—as “counselor.” After she won an acquittal in his courtroom, he read the jury her client’s list of prior arrests just to shame them for their decision.
