Though he’s been on the job for a few months, it was still a standing room only crowd in a Liberty County Judicial Complex court room Monday to welcome the Atlantic Judicial Circuit’s newest superior court judge.

With his fellow judges in attendance, plus countless other lawyers, law enforcement officers and courthouse staff, Judge Mark Hendrix offered his thanks to those there, and to the sitting judges for their patience and guidance.

The General Assembly created a fifth judgeship in the circuit, and Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Hendrix to the bench in December 2023. He joins Chief Judge Robert Russell III, Judge Paul Rose, Judge Jay Stewart and Judge Glen Cheney in the six-county circuit that covers Liberty, Long, Bryan, Evans, McIntosh and Tattnall.

“When I travel around the circuit, the lawyers who practice who here, the detectives and law enforcement officers who spend time in our courtroom know this, we have a very, very friendly bench,” Hendrix said. “I have made more mistakes in front of Judge Rose, Judge Stewart, Judge Rahn and never once was I chastised or made to feel like a fool. I hope to follow in that same pattern of being a fair judge. I appreciate their leadership already. They already received many a phone call from me going, ‘what do I do when this happens?’” A graduate of the University of Florida and the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University, Hendrix spent 10 years with the Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office before entering private practice. He was also solicitor general for Liberty County and solicitor general of Long County.

Judge Hendrix also said he didn’t expect to have say much at all, other than greet well-wishers.

“I thought we were going to drop in and say hello,” he admitted. “But I look out here and I see folks I started out here with the D.A.’s. Thank you all for being here. It really does mean a lot.”