Georgia Supreme Court Justice Carol W. Hunstein has been elected as the next chief justice, the court announced Friday.
She will replace retiring Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who will leave the court at the end of the month.
Hunstein is currently the presiding justice, who steps in when the chief justice is unavailable.
Gov. Zell Miller appointed both Sears and Hunstein to the court. He also named Justice George H. Carley, who will take Hunstein's place as presiding judge.
Miller will swear in both Hunstein and Carley on July 1.
Since being named to the court in 1992, Sears has faced voters four times, most recently in 2006 for a term to end on Dec. 31, 2009.
Though Supreme Court justices are elected, in practice the justices usually first come to the bench via gubernatorial appointment when a seat becomes vacant due to a resignation.
The state's chief justice is elected by other members of the court as head of Georgia's judicial branch, but the chief justice's vote on any case is equal to those of others on the seven-person court.
Sears, 53, has long planned to leave the court.
Starting Aug. 15, she will serve as the William Thomas Sears Distinguished Fellow in Family Law for the Institute for American Values. The one-year fellowship is named after Sears' brother, Tommy, who died in 2007 after returning from service in the Middle East. He was 53.
While on her fellowship, she will teach a seminar, "Contemporary Issues in Family Law," at the University of Georgia Law School.
Then on Oct. 15, Sears will begin working in the Atlanta offices of Schiff Hardin, a 400-lawyer firm based in Chicago. Sears will be a partner with the firm but work only half time during her first year there.
Meanwhile, candidates to replace Sears have until June 22 to get their applications to the Judicial Nominating Commission, which will give the governor a handful of recommendations.
The commission is reviewing the applications of 48 lawyers, judges, prosecutors and state lawmakers who were nominated to fill the vacancy on the court.
The panel will interview the nominees late this month and then send a list of up to five nominees to the governor.
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