April First Friday Breakfast with Chief Magistrate Judge Kristina Blum

Join us for April's First Friday Breakfast with Kristina Blum, Gwinnett County Chief Magistrate Judge.

Judge Blum is the Chief Magistrate Court Judge for Gwinnett County. The Magistrate Court is the largest court in the Gwinnett Judicial System and hears a vast breadth of cases in Gwinnett County. With jurisdiction to hear criminal and civil matters, the Magistrate Court serves as the County’s “Boots-on-the-Ground” court. Moreover, her Court has been intentional in its investments of time and resources, resulting in initiative programs to facilitate dispute resolution and to process the vast number of cases heard in the Gwinnett Judicial System.

Judge Blum began her legal career in 1994.  After spending seven years as a Senior Assistant County Attorney for Gwinnett County, she was appointed to the Magistrate Court in 2005 and became the Chief Magistrate on January 9, 2013. As Chief Magistrate, she presides over one of the busiest courts in the State of Georgia (handling approximately 100,000 matters a year).

Judge Blum lived all over the United States growing up as a proud “Air Force Brat;” she chose Gwinnett County as her forever home because of its vibrant and inclusive community, for which she remains very involved and committed. Judge Blum is a 2009 graduate of Leadership Gwinnett and she has served on the Leadership Gwinnett Steering Committee as the Retreats Co-Chair since 2011. She is an Executive Board Member of the Rotary Club of Sugarloaf and she has served on the Advisory Boards for the Gwinnett Reentry Intervention Program (“GRIP”), Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, and United Way. For three years, she was the production coordinator for the Hi Hope Service Center’s annual Gwinnett’s Kid’s Got Talent Show benefitting adults with developmental disabilities. Judge Blum is a Past President of the Georgia Magistrate Council and served as a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia from June 2015 until June 2017. She previously served on the Justice for All Strategic Action Plan Work Group for the State Bar of Georgia and is presently a member of the Access to Justice Advisory Board for the Judicial Council of Georgia.

 As Gwinnett’s first female Chief Magistrate, in 2014, the League of Women Voters honored Judge Blum with their Legacy Award. In 2015, the Council of Magistrate Court Judges presented her with their “Workhorse of the Year” Award. In addition, Judge Blum received a Public Service Award from the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce in 2016.

 Kristina has been married for 28 years to love of her life, Jim Blum; Jim has a law office in Peachtree Corners (Blum & Campbell, LLC) where he specializes in complex real estate litigation. She is also proud mom to two amazing kids, Merritt (a junior at Georgia Tech) and Corbin (a senior at Norcross HS who will be attending UGA in the fall). Outside of work, Kristina is an avid SCUBA diver (certified through Rescue Diver with over 300 dives), who also loves snow skiing, sewing, CrossFit, and she sings and plays guitar in her band Honey & Oates. On weekends, you can usually find the Blums on a campground somewhere with friends setting up their (second!) camper (the “B Hive”).