Josiah D. Coleman

Josiah Dennis Coleman (born November 3, 1972) is a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. Early life and education Justice Coleman grew up in Choctaw County, near Ackerman, and graduated valedictorian from Ackerman High School. He graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. In 2020, Coleman received his LLM in judicial studies from Duke Law School. Law career After law school, he served for almost two years as a law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford. Before joining the Supreme Court of Mississippi, he practiced law for 12 years, first in Tupelo, then in Oxford. His practice concentrated on defense litigation and appellate advocacy in the areas of insurance, product liability and professional malpractice. Coleman is the grandson of James P. Coleman, who served as Governor of Mississippi, as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and briefly as a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, resigning to accept appointment as state attorney general. Thomas Coleman, Josiah Coleman's father, was one of the original members of the Mississippi Court of Appeals when the intermediate appellate court began in 1995.