Judge Curt Rose recently won a special election to fill the seat of second judicial district circuit court judge. He was sworn into office by Judge James Goodwin on August 29. Family in attendance included Judge Rose’s wife, children and grandmother.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to have my family there with me for that moment,” said Judge Rose. “One of the special moments that occurred was that my 94-year-old grandmother was able to attend and was also able to vote for her grandson in an election."
The experience proved to be emotional for Judge Rose’s grandmother, too.
“I never saw her cry until that evening,” said Judge Rose. “She came up and gave me a hug and she actually cried tears of joy, which was really good and meaningful. We talked about my grandfather and how he would have loved to have been there. And my dad has passed away and we talked about how they were both looking down and would have been proud to be there. We had that moment, and it was just really, really special that she could be there and see that.”
Judge Rose’s father inspired his legal career and commitment to community service.
“I had that conversation with my father when I started practicing law, and I got the opportunity and privilege to practice with my dad. He was my hero,” said Judge Rose. “Always what I wanted to do growing up was to be like my dad, and my mom and dad raised all of us, my siblings and I, to get into community service, serving other people. I think serving and giving back to the community and serving the population as a judge, is the highest calling in what we can aspire to try to do."
Previously, Judge Rose served as a municipal judge in Kingsport.
“Having the opportunity for seven years to kind of figure out how to manage a docket, be a judge from that perspective, you can certainly take some of those nuggets and apply it here,” he said. “I think the big difference, obviously, is the expansive area of all the different parts of law that I haven’t dealt with since becoming a lawyer, since studying for the law exam, so getting up to speed and dusting off a lot of those things I learned at one point has been the initial biggest challenge of this job, versus what I was doing.”
On Judge Rose’s first day on the bench, he was scheduled to hear a termination of parental rights case.
“I did not practice that kind of law, so I was overpreparing and making sure that I was trying to understand it, and do what I needed to do,” he said. “I had asked the chancellor here and some other judges who handle those cases quite frequently, some attorneys who practice in that arena, what I needed to be doing, looking for, etc."
As for other attorneys considering a similar career path, Judge Rose offers the advice his father gave him.
“Treat people with kindness, treat them with respect, hone your area of the law and do it well, and just work hard at it,” he said. “And you have to have a little bit of luck and timing that works out for that, too. It doesn’t always line up that way. I think I was fortunate and consider myself to be blessed to have this opportunity and for the stars to align to have the chance to give back and serve. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
