Presiding Mississippi Supreme Court Justice George Carlson has an internal compass that always leads to one place – his home town of Batesville. As circuit court judge for DeSoto, Panola, Tallahatchie, Tate, and Yalobusha counties for nearly twenty years, Justice Carlson regularly traveled from Batesville to the eight courthouses in the district. (Three of the ten Mississippi counties with two judicial districts were in his district. Justice Carlson may challenge you to name all ten.) During his eight years on the supreme court, Justice Carlson has travelled I-55 between Batesville and Jackson every week. He knows, for example, that Vaughn is mile marker 133 and Vaiden is 174, and once he passes Vaiden, he’s “half way home.” (He says it’s about the same distance as a trip from Batesville to Hernando, a trip he made many times on the circuit.)

The trip to Batesville takes on particular meaning during high school football season. Despite his years of service on the bench, Justice Carlson is convinced his legacy won’t be in the courtroom, but as the voice of the South Panola Tigers, his alma mater’s football team. (For those of you who have been living under a rock, the Tigers have been state champions many times over. Last year they beat top ranked Madison Central in the playoffs and rolled over Oak Grove in the championship.)

He began in 1992 to fill the need for a public address announcer and statistician, subsequently moving up to color commentary and finally play by play in 2005. He says the job fell in his lap. However, it’s not a stretch to surmise that Justice Carlson’s reputation for dedication to his day job extends to his duties in the press box. Case in point: he starts his pre-game work up on the Saturday before the game the next Friday night, which includes the full history of the upcoming match.

There’s no doubt this is a gig Justice Carlson truly enjoys. His enthusiasm is contagious. The Tigers’ games are broadcast on Batesville radio station WBLE, but anyone with internet access can listen at panola.com. South Panola alumni and friends from across the country regularly send text messages to the production team from as far away as Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington. This season, Justice Carlson got word from a doctor in Iraq that he and his patients were enjoying the game. Justice Carlson’s strong sense of place truly resonates around the world.

His father, George Senior, was one of eight children who grew up in Clarke County outside Quitman, and his mother grew up in Pocahontas, Arkansas. His parents met at the Old Baptist Hospital in Memphis where he was a medical resident and she was a nursing student. They were married by the well-known fire and brimstone pastor Robert G. Lee at Bellevue Baptist Church and settled in Moorhead, “where the Southern crosses the dog.” When Justice Carlson was a baby, the family moved to Batesville, where he recalls an “idyllic childhood.”

Justice Carlson eventually ventured off to Mississippi State where he met his future wife and found his career path. During his sophomore year, he took Jane Ivy Russel, a freshman at “the W,” on a blind date that “went good” (even though the date was a fraternity “goat cooking” party at the crossroads of Highways 45 and 82, which Justice Carlson says was all the rage at the time). A constitutional history course taught by a retired municipal judge inspired him to try law school, reasoning that he would “go into teaching” if law school “didn’t work out.”

After law school at Ole Miss, Justice Carlson began a decade-long practice in Batesville with a law firm that fluctuated between two and four lawyers. He “never thought he’d be a judge,” but it’s a role he has relished. He has been an active participant in transitioning the court system into the modern age. When he began in 1983, the circuit court had “hardly any staff.” The circuit clerk would give him his phone messages during breaks from the courtroom. Because he and Circuit Judge Baker had eight court calendars to keep up with, they had to meet regularly to make sure courtrooms were not double booked. Finally, in 1989, he and Judge Baker hired an assistant, invoking the court’s inherent powers to manage the docket. They were successful in securing the approval of each county board of supervisors to pay that county’s share of the cost.

More recently, Justice Carlson has been pained by the “hits” our court system has taken, but he says it’s time to look forward. The law has always been a “service profession,” he says, “don’t treat it like a business. To make a good living, you have to have management skills, but don’t let it get to the point that it’s all about money.” Likewise, he rejects the rationale that it’s okay to “act out of character” in the courtroom because the lawyer believes such conduct is “what the client wants.” He urges practitioners to remember their “oath to serve the court as well as the client.”

Justice Carlson’s advice is simple: “Work and prepare. Be respectful.” Set that as your internal compass and “you will be successful.”