Joel O. Wooten, Jr.

JOEL O. WOOTEN - University of Georgia - B.B.A., magna cum laude with General Honors (1972), UGA School of Law J.D. (1975). While at UGA, he was President of the Student Senate, President of Blue Key, President of Gridiron, and a member of Sphinx, Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Army ROTC Brigade Executive Officer, and the Most Outstanding Senior for the College of Business Administration. 

Joel is a former Chair of the Georgia Ports Authority (2021-2023) and has been a GPA Board Member since 2013. He served as Chair of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents (2004–2005) and was a member of the USG Board of Regents from 1999-2006. He served as Chair of the State Bar of Georgia Judicial Evaluation Committee, Chair of the State Bar General Practice and Trial Section, and currently is Chair of the State Bar Business Court Committee. He has been recognized as one of Georgia Trend’s 100 Most Influential Georgians and repeatedly selected as a Georgia Super Lawyer since 2007.

He has been a member of the UGA School of Law Board of Visitors since 2011, served on the Board of Directors of the University of Georgia Athletic Association, and is now an Emeritus member of the UGAA Athletic Association Board. He has served in numerous other local and state leadership positions and has received, among others, the State Bar Tradition of Excellence Award in 2000, the Ogden Doremus Award for Excellence in Environmental Law in 2007, the UGA School of Law Distinguished Service Scroll in 2012, and the Amicus Curiae Award from the Georgia Supreme Court in 2018. In 2026, he received the Jere W. Morehead Award, the highest award given by the University of Georgia Morehead Honors College, and the Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award, presented by the State Bar of Georgia annually to honor one lawyer in Georgia who demonstrates the highest professional conduct and paramount reputation for professionalism.

He is past Chair of the American Bar Association Conference of State and Local Bar Leaders and recipient of the ABA CONSTABAR National Leader of the Year award; past President of the Columbus Bar Association and the Columbus Younger Lawyers Club, a member of Who’s Who and Who’s Who in American Law, and a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest, now GreenLaw. 

Joel is a Master of the Bench for the Columbus Inn of Court and has served on the Board of Directors of Georgia Legal Services, Inc. Joel is a member of the National Trial Lawyers and recognized as one of their Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Joel has been a Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated attorney for over 25 years and continues to receive the AV Preeminent “5.0 rating by Martindale-Hubbell.  

He is a founding partner in the law firm of Peak Wooten McDaniel & Colwell; he lives in Columbus with his wife Sybrina, and they have five children.