Charlie Bethel

Justice Charles Jones (“Charlie”) Bethel was appointed to the Supreme Court of Georgia on September 4, 2018 by Governor Nathan Deal. He previously served on the Georgia Court of Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court. Justice Bethel was elected to a full, six-year term on the Supreme Court in 2020.

Justice Bethel was born in Athens and raised in Dalton, a place he and his family still call home. He is a 1994 graduate of Dalton High School and earned both his business (BBA 1998) and law (JD 2001) degrees from the University of Georgia. At the University, he was a member of the Arch Society, as well as several other clubs and societies, including UGA Blue Key. Justice Bethel was recognized as the top student in the Management Department during his junior year of undergraduate studies. While in Law School, he was an active participant in the Moot Court program where he earned ‘Best Oral Advocate’ honors at the regional level of the National Team competition.

Following his formal education, Justice Bethel served as a law clerk on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for Justice Charles A. Pannell, Jr before returning home to Northwest Georgia. He practiced law in Dalton with Minor Bell & Neal (now “The Minor Firm”) and spent over a decade in the flooring industry in executive and legal capacities working for J&J Industries.

Responding to a call for public service, Justice Bethel was twice elected to serve as an Alderman for the City of Dalton. Thereafter, he was elected four times to serve in the Georgia State Senate. During his service in the Senate, he served as the Chair of both the Insurance & Labor Committee and the Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee. Additionally, he served as an Administration Floor Leader, a Deputy Whip, and as Co-Chair of the Joint High School Athletics Overview Committee. Justice Bethel also served on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Judiciary Non-civil, Retirement, Government Oversight, and Special Judiciary committees during his service in the Senate. In the legislature, he carried legislation on a broad array of topics. Among the high points of his legislative service, Justice Bethel counts his successful carriage of comprehensive juvenile justice reform legislation and autism insurance reform (commonly referred to as “Ava’s Law”) legislation.

Justice Bethel is the recipient of several honors and recognitions associated with his public service. The list includes multiple citations as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians by Georgia Trend Magazine as well as previous inclusion in their 40 Under 40. The University of Georgia Alumni Association has also recognized Justice Bethel as a 40 Under 40 honoree.

Candice Broce

Candice L. Broce was appointed in mid-July 2021, by Gov. Brian P. Kemp to serve as the director of the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS). In this capacity, she supports the efforts and services of more than 9,000 DFCS employees dedicated to the safety, self-sufficiency, and well-being of Georgia’s most vulnerable families and children.

Prior to her recent appointment, Broce most recently served as chief operating officer in the Governor's Office. She also previously served as communications director and chief deputy executive counsel in the Kemp administration. Broce previously managed communications and served as legal counsel for elections and legislative affairs at the Georgia Secretary of State's Office. Broce holds a bachelor's degree in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law.

A Bartow County native, Broce lives in White, Georgia, with her husband, Jason, and two sons, Beau and Jack. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia Committee on Justice for Children, Georgia Executive Children's Cabinet, State Workforce Development Board, Georgia Alzheimer's and Related Dementias Advisory Council, Board of Community Supervision, Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund Commission, and Georgia Commission on Family Violence.

Harold Melton

Harold D. Melton is currently a partner at Troutman Pepper. Previously, he served as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

As the School of Law’s Sanders Scholar in Political Leadership, he will teach a seminar titled “Representing the State,” where he will examine legal and professional issues that arise when one works as a lawyer for the state.

Melton was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2005 and served as chief justice from 2018 to 2021. Before joining the court, he served as executive counsel to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue representing the governor on legal issues covering the entire scope of state government. In this role, he helped safeguard Georgia’s interests in water rights disputes with Alabama and Florida and actively participated in administration efforts to advance the delivery of criminal justice services in the state. Previously, Melton spent 11 years in the Georgia Department of Law under two attorneys general where he served as section leader over the Consumer Interests Division.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and his law degree from UGA.

Danette Joslyn-Gaul

As general counsel and vice president for Ethics, Compliance and Legal Affairs for Georgia Tech, Danette Joslyn-Gaul serves as a member of President Cabrera’s cabinet and oversees the Office of the General Counsel by providing leadership, oversight, and direction on all legal and ethics matters for Georgia Tech, managing an office of 45 employees, and managing issues related to risk, compliance, legal affairs, employment, intellectual property, and litigation, as well as related community and government relations issues, as they arise. 

She joined Georgia Tech from Pearson, a multi-national corporation based in the U.K. whose purpose is to add life to a lifetime of learning. With more than 20,000 employees, Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, and data in the areas of English language learning, higher education, virtual learning, workforce skills, and assessments and qualifications. She has been at Pearson since 2014, most recently serving as chief compliance officer and a member of Pearson’s legal leadership team, where her work focused on anti-bribery and corruption, trade sanctions, investigations, and a transformation of the global compliance function. Before serving as their chief compliance officer, she served as vice president of Global Compliance as well as vice president, senior counsel for North America, among other roles.

Joslyn-Gaul’s career spans nearly three decades, including service to two Georgia governors. Notably, she was one of the youngest attorneys to ever serve as executive counsel to Georgia Gov. Zell Miller. As part of the Miller administration, she worked closely with the General Assembly to codify the HOPE Scholarship, among other initiatives, and helped with the implementation of the governor's plan to diversify the judiciary in the state of Georgia. 

She then served as director of State Affairs at Emory University, where her leadership efforts saw increased funding for Grady Hospital, passage of research confidentiality legislation, and the launch of a strategic plan for the Georgia Cancer Coalition. She would later serve as the first general counsel and head of government relations for the Georgia Technology Authority. She then joined Wimberly, Lawson, Steckel, Schneider & Stine, P.C., a management-side labor and employment firm and became partner. Her tenure there included cases before federal and state courts, hearings, trials, mediations, arbitrations, and arguments before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Spanish from Rhodes College and a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law.

She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert and leader. She was the recipient of Lawyer Monthly Magazine’s “Women in Law Awards-Global Compliance” in 2020 and was a finalist for the Women in Compliance Awards’ “Chief Compliance Officer, Large Company” in 2019 and 2020. Additionally, she was awarded the Top Compliance Counsel’s “First Chair Award” in 2019 and was a finalist for Women in Compliance Awards’ “In-House Compliance Team of the Year” in 2018. She was also the recipient of several corporate honors connected to her leadership at Pearson, including leadership development programs, and she was named “Business Partner of the Year” by Pearson Canada in 2016.