Judge Kim Childs of Cobb County Superior Court won a race for an open seat in 2016, surprising erself by garnering 55% of the vote in a three-way contest that was expected to go to a runoff.

Childs grew up on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, in Habersham County, where she went to work at the local McDonald's at the age of 15. After earning a criminal justice degree from North Georgia College in Dahlonega, she worked nearly three years as a jail guard for the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office. Then she became a paralegal and used that job to put herself through law school at Georgia State University. She handled complex business litigation for five years with Wargo & French and Hunton & Williams in Atlanta. She started her own firm in 2007 with an office near Interstate 285 and West Paces Ferry Road in Cobb.

Last month she agreed to answer the Daily Report's questions for the ongoing feature, "Questions for the Bench."