Circuit Court Judge John McLellan, III, of Kingsport has been chosen as president-elect of the Tennessee Judicial Conference, which includes all of the state's 178 trial and appellate court judges. He will become president of the organization in June 2004 for a one-year term.
“To have my judicial colleagues from across the state elect me to assume the highest office in the conference is an incredible honor,” McLellan, 57, said. “I feel particularly humbled by my election since the last conference president from the Second Judicial District was in 1989-90 when Chancellor Richard Ladd served. He is, without question, one of the finest judges in this state and it is humbling to follow him more than a decade later.”
The July issue of the Kingsport Bar Association Newsletter describes McLellan’s election to the Tennessee Judicial Conference office as “a great honor” demonstrating “the respect Judge McLellan holds among his peers.”
McLellan has been on the bench since 1994 when he was appointed to the Circuit Court for Sullivan County, Division I. He was elected in 1996 and again in 1998 to an 8-year term. He previously served as Sullivan County attorney from 1978-1994.
Since 1999, he has been a member of the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, which enforces the code of conduct for judges. He was a director of the Tennessee Trial Judges Association in 1996-97 and has been a member of the Kingsport Bar Association since 1971. He also is a member of the American Judicature Society and the American Trial Lawyers Association.
McLellan graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in 1964 and the University of Tennessee in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. In 1970, he earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee Law School in Knoxville. He and his wife Wanda G. McLellan have two sons, John and Jason Ray, and two granddaughters, Brittany Star and Kaile Pearl.