Chief Judge J. Randal Hall of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Augusta spent his legal career in banking before President George W. Bush nominated him to the bench in 2007. Hall was confirmed by the Senate in 2008.

Hall graduated from Augusta College, now Augusta University, in 1979 and graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1982.

Hall spent 11 years as corporate vice president and legal counsel of Bankers First Corp. and as general counsel of its subsidiary, Bankers First Savings Bank. In his judicial nomination questionnaire, Hall wrote, "While at Bankers First, I managed the entire legal function of that $1 billion corporation, including securities matters, regulatory matters (state and federal), litigation, loan work-outs, real estate acquisition and development, employment issues and general corporate projects."

In 1996, when Bankers First was sold to SouthTrust Corp., Hall returned to private law practice, eventually heading up the Augusta office of Hunter, Maclean, Exley & Dunn.

In 2003, Hall joined Warlick Tritt Stebbins & Hall in Augusta. His practice at the firm, according to his judicial questionnaire, focused on commercial real estate matters across the Southeast, ranging from the small to the multimillion-dollar variety; banking; corporate matters; entity formation and commercial litigation. Within the litigation context, Hall wrote, he worked on creditor-side bankruptcy representation, loan workouts, collections and small business disputes.