Josiah D. Coleman

Josiah Dennis Coleman (born November 3, 1972) is a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Justice Coleman grew up in Choctaw County, near Ackerman, and graduated valedictorian from Ackerman High School. He graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy. He earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

After earning his law degree, he served for almost two years as a law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander in Oxford. Before joining the Supreme Court of Mississippi, he practiced law for 12 years, first in Tupelo, then in Oxford. His practice concentrated on defense litigation and appellate advocacy in the areas of insurance, product liability and professional malpractice.

Coleman is the grandson of J.P. Coleman, who served as Governor of Mississippi, as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and briefly as a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, resigning to accept appointment as state attorney general. Thomas Coleman, Josiah Coleman’s father, was one of the original members of the Mississippi Court of Appeals when the intermediate appellate court began in 1995.

Coleman, who was endorsed by the Republican Party, won his election comfortably in 2012.[1] On November 3, 2020, voters elected him to a second term.