Court of Appeals Judges


Latrice A. Westbrooks Judge
Latrice A. Westbrooks
District 2, Position 2


Judge Latrice Westbrooks was sworn in as a member of the Mississippi Court of Appeals on Jan. 3, 2017. She was elected Nov. 8, 2016, to Court of Appeals District 2, Position 2.

Judge Westbrooks was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. She earned a law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 1997. She was admitted to the Mississippi Bar that same year.

She became an assistant district attorney in the Second Circuit District of Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties in October 1997. She was the first African American woman assistant district attorney in the Second Circuit District. She joined the Jackson law firm of Byrd and Associates in 2000, then opened her own law practice in 2001, representing clients in both criminal and civil matters.

She served as prosecutor for the city of Durant and as city attorney for the town of Isola. For almost 10 years, she served as a public defender in Holmes County. In 2013, she became interim communications director for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, then joined the Jackson City Attorney's office as legal counsel for the Jackson Police Department. She returned to private law practice in 2014. She served as Municipal Judge for the city of Lexington before she was elected to the Court of Appeals.

Judge Westbrooks was named Outstanding Woman Lawyer of 2017 by the Mississippi Women Lawyers' Association.

She has worked in conjunction with the Magnolia Bar Association, One Voice, the NAACP, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mississippi Youth Justice Project and the ACLU. She served as a Southeast Regional and Central Director of the Magnolia Bar Association. She previously chaired the Criminal Justice Committee for the State Conference of the NAACP. She is a member of the Mississippi Bar, Magnolia Bar Association, American Bar Association, National Bar Association, the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Capital Area Bar Association and the Metro Jackson Black Women Lawyers Association. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. as well as a life member of the NAACP. She is a former member of the Mississippi Association for Justice and the Mississippi Public Defenders Association. She is a past board member of Leadership Greater Jackson Alumnae, the I.S. Sanders YMCA, and the National African American Student Leadership Conference.

Judge Westbrooks is a resident of Lexington, Mississippi. She is a member of Cade Chapel M.B. Church.