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August 8, 2017
Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. issued the following statement regarding Presiding Justice Jess H. Dickinson after Gov. Phil Bryant announced Dickinson’s appointment as Commissioner of the Department of Child Protection Services:
“Presiding Justice Jess H. Dickinson is an original thinker who painstakingly researched and applied the law of each case. He was tireless as a writer and exhibited great energy and enthusiasm in his work, always tempered with collegiality. He is responsible for the creation of the Access to Justice Commission, affecting the lives of countless poor people who otherwise would be locked out of the courthouse. He provided superb leadership as chairman of the civil rules committee that recently published fully revised rules of evidence in plain language. He will be missed.”
Justice Jess H. Dickinson was born in Charleston, Mississippi, in 1947. After graduation from East Tallahatchie High School in 1965, he attended Mississippi State University, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1978. He received his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1982, where he served on the editorial board of the Mississippi Law Journal.
After practicing law for one year in Jackson, and 20 years in Gulfport, Justice Dickinson served as a Forrest County Circuit Court Judge, by special appointment of the Mississippi Supreme Court. His service on the Supreme Court began in January 2004. His first year on the Court, Justice Dickinson was awarded the Chief Justice Award for his work in advancing the administration of justice. He again received the Chief Justice Award in 2010 for his work on improving access to justice for the poor in Mississippi. In 2009, the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project awarded Justice Dickinson its Pro Bono Pioneer Award.
Justice Dickinson has served on the adjunct faculty of William Carey College and Mississippi College School of Law where, in 2009, he was elected by the law students as Adjunct Professor of the Year. He served two terms on both the Ethics Committee and the Professionalism Committee of the Mississippi Bar. He also serves as the Supreme Court’s liaison to organizations providing legal services to the poor, and is a charter member of the Mississippi Access to Justice Commission.
