Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph of Hattiesburg has been selected to receive The Mississippi Bar’s Judicial Excellence Award for 2023, which will be formally presented at the organization’s Annual Meeting July 18-20 in Biloxi. Randolph was nominated by his colleagues and chosen by the Board of Bar Commissioners as this year’s recipient of the annual award. The Mississippi Bar is composed of nearly 9,000 active members who are licensed to practice law in Mississippi.
Chief Justice Randolph served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, where he was decorated for heroism. He served as an air traffic controller with the First Infantry Division and was honorably discharged in 1967. While he attended law school, he received an appointment as a Reserve officer in the U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Chief Justice Randolph is a graduate of the Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island. He was honorably discharged in 1975.
Chief Justice Randolph earned an undergraduate degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He then completed a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he served as Student Body President for the School of Law. He was admitted to The Mississippi Bar in 1974.
Chief Justice Randolph was a practicing attorney in Hattiesburg from 1975 to 2004. He worked for three firms, serving as president and CEO of Bryan Nelson Randolph P.A. before beginning his work with the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Randolph to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2004 to replace former Chief Justice Edwin L. Pittman. He was subsequently elected in 2004 and reelected in 2012 and 2020. After becoming a Presiding Justice in 2013, he became Chief Justice in 2019.
Chief Justice Randolph holds the highest ranking accorded by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in their Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers, as well as A.M. Best’s Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys and The Insurance Bar. His legal experience includes extensive state and federal court practice. He primarily devoted his practice to insurance defense for two decades, but in the last decade before appointment to the Supreme Court, his practice was divided equally representing defendants and plaintiffs.
Chief Justice Randolph is a member of The Mississippi Bar, the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, and the South Central Mississippi Bar Association, which he formerly served as president.
Randolph and his wife, Kathy, attend Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg. They have three children and five grandchildren.
