Michelle Barclay: Good afternoon, Kevin, and thank you for agreeing to this interview. Please tell our readers how you landed in the position of Executive Director for the Georgia Council of Probate Court Judges?
Kevin Holder: I have an interesting path. My original goal was to be a broadcast journalist, that was my initial major in college. However, I have always enjoyed learning about government and politics, even as a child, and I signed up for many of those classes in college. At one point I met with my academic advisor and he said, “I see you’re listed as a broadcast journalism major, but you have way too many poli. sci. classes, you might want to consider changing your major.”
So, I ended up changing my major to political science and went on to get my Master’s in Public Administration. Since I did not become a broadcast journalist, I was thinking about becoming a lobbyist. My first professional job, though, was working at the Georgia General Assembly as a Senate Aide. I was actually profiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during my time there. I served as the Senate Reading Clerk—a role that was also held by Rob Teilet, who once served in the Georgia House of Representatives and later ran for Attorney General of Georgia, and former Governor Zell Miller. They were also interviewed for that AJC article.
A pivotal event for me was serving on jury duty. I was assigned to a murder case in Clayton County that garnered a lot of media attention and it was known as the Morehouse Murder Case. It was about a Morehouse student who had gotten into a car accident and was allegedly going around campus telling his friends that he was about to get a huge settlement. His friends, or his alleged friends, conspired to kill him. I served on the jury for that trial for the first defendant, who was a theology major, of all things, at Morehouse. We found him guilty on 13 of the 14 counts and he was sentenced to life plus 70 years. At the time of the sentencing, he was 22 years old.
In that case, I served as jury foreman, even though I was the youngest person on the jury. After debriefing with the Clayton County District Attorney’s office following the trial, I was offered a job with that office and I accepted. Later, I worked for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. Then, I became a manager at the DeKalb Police Department, which was very interesting. However, I will save those stories for my future book. Finally, I was hired by the Judicial Council/AOC which was exactly where I wanted to be. I had tried for some time to get hired by the AOC. After six months as an AOC employee, the ED position for the Council of Probate Court Judges opened up. I was not too keen on applying for that position because I liked my job, was at peace, and had the requisite work/life balance. However, Cynthia Clanton was very persuasive that I should at least apply for the job, so I did and was hired. It has been one of the best professional decisions I’ve made because the last eight years have been so rewarding.
MB: What are your favorite parts of your job?
Kevin Holder: My favorite parts of my job are just being able to assist my judges, both professionally and personally, to accomplish their goals. I have become good friends with a lot of my judges, and I’ve taken an interest in them beyond their service on the bench. Over time, I have had profound conversations with a number of them, just talking about what they want to accomplish in work and in life. I’m happy that I have been able to help a number of them succeed over these eight years. A second favorite thing is that this job allows me to have a statewide impact. I can point to something in pretty much every single county that I can say I helped to bring about, and that’s very rewarding.
MB: Do you have any goals for 2024?
Kevin Holder: My professional goal for 2024 is to help our expected incoming class of new judges—which will be around 30 or so—to get integrated into the probate court ecosystem and the state judiciary as a whole. I have already spoken to approximately 10 of them who are running unopposed. I do a presentation at our annual conference where I equate the state judiciary to a small neighborhood. In a small neighborhood, sometimes there’s a house where the yard is unkempt, the siding is falling off, or the homeowners are just not doing a good job taking care of their house. My advice is never to become that house. Do not get to a point where you feel isolated while doing your job because there are so many resources in our state and so many people who can help you stay out of trouble; to make sure you follow the law and abide by the Judicial Code of Conduct and all the rules that you have to follow when you are a judge. My personal goal is just to continue to grow. I went through a phase where I was focused inwardly on my own personal ambitions. I reached a point in my life where I realized that the best use of time and energy is to help other people accomplish their goals.
MB: Let’s talk about the big class of new judges. Is that class a result of COVID?
Kevin Holder: I believe it is. In Georgia, our Probate Courts were the most adversely impacted courts during the pandemic. We had over 100 clerks who contracted COVID and about 45 judges. Three of our judges died during the pandemic, as did one clerk. I think COVID played a precipitating factor in the decision of several of my judges to retire and has caused a number of judges to reevaluate how they want to spend their time. There are also the effects of COVID. I am hearing about the more contentious environment now. People are edgier and more confrontational in court. Some of my judges planned for retirement in the coming years but decided to take it earlier rather than later.
MB: Last question, what do you do when you are not working?
Kevin Holder: I read a book a week and I have been doing that since I was a child. I read every morning before work and every evening. Right now, I’m reading Life after Power by Jared Cohen, which follows the post-presidency lives of seven U.S. Presidents, just to see what impact they had in the world subsequent to serving as “the leader of the free world.” I’m also very active in my Prince Hall Masonic Lodge where we do a lot of community service. Every year, we send multiple students to college and we partner with organizations to take food to senior citizens. Recently, we partnered with a church and a food pantry to provide groceries for over 200 families who are experiencing food insecurity. Every Thanksgiving, we provide about 150 meals to families and we do a lot of mentoring of young men and women. It takes up a lot of my time. Most weekends, I’m engaged in some type of community service project.
