On June 18, 2010 McMillian was one of three candidates recommended by the nominating commission for a vacancy on the Griffin Judicial Circuit.[3] On August 11, 2010 Governor Sonny Perdue appointed McMillan to be a Judge of the Georgia State Court for Fayette County.[2]
Georgia Court of Appeals
On January 16, 2013 Governor Nathan Deal appointed McMillian to the Georgia Court of Appeals to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of A. Harris Adams.[4][5] She was sworn into office on January 24, 2013.[6] She is the first Asian Pacific American state appellate judge ever to be appointed in the Southeast.[7] Upon her election in 2014, Judge McMillian became the first Asian American to be elected to a statewide office in Georgia.[6]
Georgia Supreme Court
In early March 2020, McMillian was submitted as a potential nominee to the governor, along with Judge Verda Colvin, Judge Sara L. Doyle and Judge Shawn LaGrua, all women.[8] On March 27, 2020, Governor Brian Kemp announced his appointment of McMillian to the Supreme Court of Georgia.[9] She fills the seat left vacant by Robert Benham who retired on March 1, 2020. At the time of her appointment, McMillian became the first Asian American woman in the Southeast to be appointed to the state's highest court.[10]
Personal life
She is married to her husband, Lance McMillian,[11] a lawyer and author, and they have two children.[2]
Since 2019, she serves or has served in leadership roles for the Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Fayette County Historical Society, the Partnership Against Domestic Violence, the Real Life Center, the Atlanta Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the Georgia Legal History Foundation.[6]
