Hon. Joy Lampley-Fortson

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge

US Department of Justice

Judge Joy Lampley-Fortson is an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge with the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review. In March 2019, the United States Attorney General appointed her to become an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge.  In this capacity, Judge Lampley-Fortson serves as the Chief Judge of three federal immigration courts in the State of Georgia. She is responsible for providing overall leadership for the administration of the courts and the judges, law clerks and staff members within those courts. Furthermore, she presides over immigration cases and ensures that the legal proceedings before the court provides due process to all litigants. 

Prior to her appointment as a judge, Judge Lampley-Fortson served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity, the State of Georgia’s civil rights agency.  In March 2017, Governor Nathan Deal appointed her to lead the agency and by doing so, entrusted her with the responsibility to work with the federal government to enforce the equal employment and fair housing laws across the State of Georgia.   Prior to her gubernatorial appointment, Judge Lampley-Fortson served as an Assistant Chief Counsel with the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Office of the Chief Counsel, where she represented DHS before the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review (Immigration Court) and the U.S. Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals for ten years.  From 2001 until 2007, Judge Lampley-Fortson served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Office).  As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she practiced in federal court where she prosecuted defendants in cases that ranged from white-collar crime to violent crime and litigated numerous appellate matters before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, she represented the City of Atlanta as a prosecutor.  She served as an Assistant Solicitor with the City of Atlanta Solicitor’s Office from 1997 until 2001.   

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Judge Lampley-Fortson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Relations and earned her Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Florida College of Law.