ATLANTA, Oct. 3, 2023– The Supreme Court of Georgia welcomes its 2023-24 law clerk class.

Law clerks serve a one-year term and assist their assigned judges with legal research, writing and reviewing opinions, preparing for oral arguments, and other important tasks.

The Class of 2023-2024 is comprised of high-caliber law school graduates, including several former judicial interns and former and future law clerks at the Federal Court. They also include former moot court competitors and winners, editors of legal publications, a former management consultant, a student government president and vice president, and a published novelist.

Now in its sixth year, the Clerk of Court Program allows Georgia’s Supreme Court to invest in the future leaders of the Georgia Bar and the state’s appellate practice through an intensive year of legal research and writing. Some of this year’s clerks have recently graduated from law school, while others have come to the Court after one or more years in the legal profession.

“Our court is fortunate to have a talented cohort of law clerks beginning this fall, and we look forward to providing them with meaningful, practical appellate experience,” said Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs. “We are confident that these new attorneys will find their clerkship valuable as they embark on what we know will be a rewarding legal career.”

Get to know the class of 2023-24:

  • Frankie Brown, a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, clerks for Judge Charlie Bethel. While in law school, she served as online editor of the Georgia Law Review and participated in the law school’s Appellate Litigation Clinic. She also worked as a teaching assistant to Prof. Christian Turner in the area of ​​Fundamentals of American Law. Before studying law, she published a novel and worked as a paralegal. Brown, who grew up in Albany, Georgia, earned her Bachelor of Science in Sociology with a concentration in Criminology from Kennesaw State University. She has served as an extern judge in two federal district courts.
  • Rachel Byers, a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, is a law clerk for Judge Verda M. Colvin. Byers, whose hometown is Monroe, Georgia, also earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from UGA, where she served as student body president. During her law studies, she completed an internship as a judge at two federal district courts. Byers was also an editorial board member of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, president of Dean’s Ambassadors, a member of the Moot Court Board, and winner of the Hulsey-Gambrell Moot Court Competition and the National Online Moot Court Competition.
  • Mitch Fucetola, a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, is a law clerk at Sarah Hawkins Warren. Fucetola, a native of Saint Simons Island, Georgia, also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Accountancy from UGA. During law school, he was an article editor for the Georgia Law Review and a research assistant to Prof. Usha Rodrigues, ME Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate and Securities Law. He was also a Perry Sentell and Law School Association Scholar. Prior to his clerkship at the Supreme Court of Georgia, Fucetola interned for a federal district court judge and was an attorney at a large law firm in Atlanta.
  • Jordan Lipp, who graduated summa cum laude first in his class from Mercer University School of Law, clerks for Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs. Lipp, who grew up in Pine Mountain Valley, Georgia, also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in human resources management from Mercer’s Stetson-Hatcher School of Business. While in law school, he was a member of the Mercer Law Review, where he published twice, served as co-president of the Christian Legal Society, was a Woodruff Scholar, and was a member of several honor societies. Prior to his clerkship at the Supreme Court of Georgia, he interned at the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit Superior Court.
  • Samantha Thompson Lipp, a magna cum laude graduate of Mercer University School of Law, is a law clerk for Chief Judge Nels SD Peterson. Lipp, a native of Vidalia, Georgia, also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Mercer. While in law school, she interned at the Georgia Court of Appeals, served as president of the Phi Delta Phi Honor Society, participated in the William Augustus Bootle Inn of Court as a student member, and was named the first recipient of the Hugh B. McNatt Scholarship. Before studying law, she worked in management consulting.
  • Evan Long, a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, clerks for Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua. Long, originally from Lilburn, Georgia, comes to the court after serving as a law clerk for Judge Brian K. Epps at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Augusta. While in law school, he also completed internships with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, and the Judiciary Committee of the Georgia House of Representatives. Long holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Georgia Tech, where he graduated cum laude.
  • Roya Naghepour, an honors graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, is a law clerk for Judge Andrew A. Pinson. Naghepour, of Roswell, Georgia, is a first-generation college and law graduate who also earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from UGA, where she served as UGA student vice president and a voting member of the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors. While in law school, she served as a notes editor at the Georgia Law Review and won the 2021 Hulsey Gambrell Moot Court Competition. She was also the first law student to attend oral argument before the Court as a student attorney at UGA’s Appellate Litigation Clinic of Appeals of Georgia, the state’s intermediate appeals court. Prior to her clerkship on the Supreme Court of Georgia, Naghepour clerked for Judge Lisa Godbey Wood on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
  • Eric Wang, who graduated first in his class from Emory University Law School, is a law clerk at Carla Wong McMillian. Wang, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, earned his Bachelor of Arts in public and international affairs from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude. At Emory, where Wang also earned a Master of Theological Studies, he was editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal Symposium and a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow. He has also worked as a legal extern for the Solicitor General’s Unit in the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and as a judicial intern at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following this clerkship, Wang will clerk for Judge Andrew Brasher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The Georgia Supreme Court clerkship program began in 2018 with support from the Georgia General Assembly. Each judge hires his or her own clerk for a year.