At barely 10 years old, Pierce Hand Seitz already had a leg up on other 5th graders: After getting a taste of legal proceedings during a mock trial, he was pretty certain he wanted to be a lawyer when he grew up

He just had to figure out what exactly lawyers did besides make dramatic speeches in a big courtroom.

“I didn’t really know what attorneys did other than (from) watching maybe Matlock on TV,” jokes Seitz, who credited more mock trial experience and mentoring from Atlanta-area attorneys with ultimately leading him toward a successful career in commercial litigation and housing law – a first in his immediate family. 

This spring, the Atlanta native scored another first when Mayor Andre Dickens tapped him for a judge’s seat on the City of Atlanta Municipal Court. The April appointment makes him the first known LGBTQ+ judge to serve in the role.

A former senior assistant district attorney with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Hand will draw from his extensive experience there and in civil housing litigation with Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation to oversee code enforcement matters. 

His appointment comes as the push for gender, race and political diversity among the nation’s jurists spreads beyond the federal courts into the municipal courts.

A product of Atlanta Public Schools raised by a single parent, Hand Seitz says diversity in the city’s courts is at the heart of ensuring everyday people get a chance at fair and compassionate justice.

“It’s often that you go into some judicial court rooms and you don’t see people who look like you,” he says. “My identity can impact whether I treat people from a more human-centered place and will help some people feel the system is more fair.”

From Inspired Youth to Esteemed Municipal Judge

Growing up in a city known for civil rights activism, Seitz had a pantheon of historical Black icons to look up to – from his high school namesake educator Booker T. Washington to civil rights attorney Donald L. Hollowell, a personal idol.

Over time, Seitz realized he too wanted to make a community-level difference.  He just had to figure out his angle.

“I tried my hand at football and sports,” says Seitz, who quickly learned the grid iron wasn’t his forte. “It was very clear that school would be the thing I did best!”

Seitz says he instead focused on honors and magnet classes, while nurturing a fledgling interest in the law that was born from his time at southwest Atlanta’s Mary M. Bethune Elementary School. There, a pre-pubescent Seitz got his first taste of the courtroom – or something like it anyway. 

“There was a mock trial competition and I entered and I got an award for it and ever since they I told my mom, my dad, my grandparents and everybody that I wanted to be a lawyer,” he says. “I had no idea what lawyers did – mock trial at that age is more like acting than super critical thinking.”

But his interest was piqued. The fascination stuck long enough for Seitz to land an internship with a law firm right out of high school. There he saw the real nuts and bolts of the law.

“Watching them analyze documents and read over things really intrigued me,” he says. “I just over time had to figure out how I wanted to be an advocate.

After graduating with from Emory University with a B.A. in Spanish, Seitz first tried teaching in Atlanta public schools. Before long, however, he says he couldn’t ignore the pull to the courtroom.

He would go on to earn a law degree from Georgia State University College of Law, later working for two federal judges before launching a career representing clients in civil commercial disputes in local, state and federal courts.

His lengthy experience in commercial litigation as well as his work as co-director of the Safe and Stable Homes Project at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, combined to make Seitz a natural fit for the city municipal judge position left vacant after the previous judged died, according to the Mayor’s Office.

“Pierce Hand Seitz is a respected attorney with a track record of safeguarding fundamental dignities such as tenants' rights and access to quality housing.” Mayor Dickens said in an April press release. “He brings a nuanced understanding of the significance of community and equitable legal representation. Municipal Court and the people of Atlanta will be well-served by Judge Hand Seitz and I look forward to his leadership.”

Changing Face of Jurists

While Seitz is a first for Atlanta, he joins a national cadre of LGBTQ+ judges that’s growing as insiders say a changing society demands jurists who better represent their lives.

“As LGBTQ rights are being subject to litigation across the country, it is increasingly clear that we need judges at all levels of the judiciary who understand what’s at stake and who know that many of these cases are fundamentally about the ability of queer people in America to live authentically,” says Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, in Washington D.C. The coalition released a report last fall detailing the need for diversity in the nation’s courtrooms, specifically at the federal level.

Stephen M. Lachs broke new ground when he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Los Angeles Superior Court in September 1979, making him the first known gay judge in America.

Since then,  the numbers of openly LGBTQ+ jurists have swollen to number some 187 active and former judges, magistrate judges, court commissioners and administrative law judges across the country.

They range from Nicole Burner, among the most recent of 11 LGBTQ+ federal judges appointed by President Joe Biden, to New York Court of Claims judge Seth Marnin, who made history last year as the nation’s first out trans man to serve as a judge.

“Having more judges, including openly LGBTQ judges, who come from all of our communities helps to build more trust in the judiciary,” Zwarensteyn says.  “The selection of openly LGBTQ+ judges also sends a powerful signal to young LGBTQ+ lawyers, law students, and other potential future judges that they belong on the federal bench and in positions of power.”

As a youth, Seitz says he recalls seeing relatively few images of people who looked or lived like him among the TV attorneys he scrutinized. Years later, he says, courtrooms remain largely homogenous.

“I grew up wanting to be an attorney really based on things I saw on TV but it’s important that none of those reflections were me,” he says. “There’s a sense that the legal profession could benefit from a lot more diversity.”

To be sure, the former member of the Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board says identity must never trump justice when deciding a case. But it can help jurists better relate to and understand the people they serve he says, pointing to an instance during his days as a prosecutor. 

At the time, Seitz says an anxious defense attorney reached out to him about using female pronouns for his transgender client.

“He was calling to ask me if I was OK doing that,” he says. “That’s the nervousness that citizens who come before the court have about fair treatment – are they going to be called what they want to be called?”

Still other citizens struggle with financial and social limitations that can make the courthouse a frightening place, he says. As an attorney handling housing matters, Seitz says he saw firsthand how limited education could cost people their homes.

“As a tenant, you have seven days to respond to any type of eviction. That’s a very tight window and if you have issues with literacy it may not be enough time,” says Seitz who aims to use his role as a judge to make it easier for people to navigate the court system. 

Ahead of his swearing-in, the Atlantan was busy wrapping up duties at his nonprofit job, taking in accolades from his supportive family and husband Scot, and occasionally pinching himself. 

At just 35, he gets to do what he values most.

“As an attorney it’s advocating for folks, as a prosecutor, it was advocating for justice for victims,” he says. “As a judge … it will be just as a human being listening to people. And whether the outcome is in their favor or not, embodying fair treatment.”