HON. HOLLY KIRBY In 1995, at the age of 38, Justice Holly Kirby became a gender milestone, the first woman in Tennessee history to serve on the Tennessee Court of Appeals. In 2014, after she had served on the intermediate appellate court for almost 19 years, Justice Kirby was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court by Governor Bill Haslam. She was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 2023.

A lifelong Tennessean, Justice Kirby was born in Memphis, graduated from high school in Columbia, Tennessee, and earned her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Memphis. Justice Kirby graduated with high honors from the University of Memphis Law School in 1982, and after that clerked for Judge Harry Wellford on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

After her clerkship, Justice Kirby practiced with the Memphis firm of Burch, Porter & Johnson, where she became the firm’s first female partner. In 1995, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals by then-Governor Don Sunquist, where she served until Governor Bill Haslam appointed her to the Supreme Court in 2014. From the time of her appointment to the Court of Appeals in 1995 to the present, Justice Kirby has won 6 statewide elections.

Justice Kirby has been recognized as an Outstanding Young Alumna by the University of Memphis, Outstanding Alumna by the University of Memphis College of Engineering, and Special Distinguished Alumna by the University of Memphis School of Law. She has received the Marion Griffin-Frances Loring Award from the Memphis Association for Women Attorneys, the Distinguished Leadership Award from Women in Numbers, and was named Community Mother of the Year by the Tennessee Justice Center.

Justice Kirby and her family live in Memphis.