Two appointments of consequence involving local figures were made this week:
*Governor Bill Haslam announced the appointment of Judge Holly M. Kirby of Memphis to succeed the retiring Justice Janice M. Holder on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Kirby, who has served as a member of the Tennessee Court of Appeals since 1995, will assume the seat when Holder’s term expires on June 28 of next year.
A Memphis native, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Memphis in 1979 and ranked third in her 1982 graduating class at the University of Memphis Law School. elected fellow of the Memphis Bar Foundation in 2006. She was named outstanding
alumna of the University of Memphis College of Engineering in 2002 and was named
outstanding young alumna of the University of Memphis in 1996.
Justice-Designate Kirby has served on the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct since 2012 and has also serveon the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, the Tennessee Judicial Conferencee, the Council of State Government intergranch committee, and the Tennessee Appellate Court Nomination Committee.
* To no one’s surprise, Shelby County Commissioner Chris Thomas will be leaving the Commission to join his colleague and friend Wyatt Bunker at the helm of Lakeland city government.
Bunker, who was elected mayor of Lakeland last month, had announced publicly that he wanted Thomas, the former Shelby County Probate Clerk and a close ally on the Commission, to apply for the open job of city manager of Lakeland.
The Lakeland Board of Commissioners confirmed Thomas’s appointment at the Board’s Tuesday night meeting.
Thomas will continue to serve on the Shelby County Commission for his duration of his term, which expires next year, but will not seek reelection.
