Judge Gary Washington is the Probate Court Judge for Rockdale County. Previously he served as an associate judge in the same Court. Washington is licensed to practice in Georgia and South Carolina and has more than thirty years of legal experience, including practicing at all levels of courts in Georgia.

Judge Washington graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, and Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, where he served as one of the first two African American editors for the Rutgers Law Review.

After law school, Washington began his legal career as a judicial law clerk for his mentor and renowned civil rights attorney, the late Matthew J. Perry, Jr., Federal District Court Judge in South Carolina. Later, Washington worked as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. Washington also served as an attorney for the Georgia Appellate Resources Center and as a senior attorney for the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office.

Judge Washington has been passionate and enjoyed spending an inordinate amount of time teaching in the areas of the law. He is a past instructor at the National Criminal Defense College, Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia, and he has lectured for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Washington has conducted numerous “Know Your Rights” workshops in Rockdale County and throughout the nation on topics such as “Act Like a Citizen. Think Like a Cop” and “Youth and The Law: What Young People Don’t Know That Can Land Them in Jail.”

Judge Washington is a member of the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia and the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees for the Conyers-Rockdale Library System. He is also a member of the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office Merit Board, the Rockdale County Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association, NewRock Legal Society, the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Judge Washington and his wife, Evetta, have been married for 27 years and they have an adult daughter.  The Washingtons are members of Antioch-Lithonia Missionary Baptist Church and the Rockdale County branch of the NAACP.

Judge Washington’s legal career has been dedicated to making the law a better tool of justice.