State of Mississippi Judiciary

Presiding Judge
Jack L. Wilson
District 3, Position 1

Presiding Judge Jack L. Wilson of Madison was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Phil Bryant on July 1, 2015. He was elected to an eight-year term in November 2016.

Judge Wilson grew up in Jackson and Tupelo and graduated from Tupelo High School. He attended the University of Memphis, earned a Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of Mississippi, and received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he clerked for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Judge Wilson previously practiced law with the firms of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Jackson, Miss., and Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, DC. His practice focused on appellate litigation and general civil litigation involving a variety of subject matters including business and commercial disputes, class and collective actions, and arbitrations. He represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Wilson also served as Deputy Counsel and later Chief Counsel to Gov. Phil Bryant.

He is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Mississippi; in the District of Columbia; in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits; and in the U.S. Supreme Court. He previously served as a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, and as president of the Mississippi Lawyers Chapter of The Federalist Society. He has also served as an adjunct instructor at the Mississippi College School of Law.

Judge Wilson and his wife, Amanda, have four children, Emily, Jack, Henry and Katherine. They live in Madison, where they are active members of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church.