Judge Joshua Turnbow has the Great Recession in 2009 to thank for his legal career path.
“I graduated in 2009 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a finance degree,” said Judge Turnbow. “If you remember 2009, it was a really, really, really bad time to graduate in finance.”
Instead of pursuing a career in finance, Judge Turnbow got married and ended up working in a warehouse unloading trucks. Since he liked to debate and argue, he and his wife decided he should give law school a shot.
“I wasn’t going anywhere as far as getting a career started at that point,” he said. "I’d taken a year off between undergrad and law school and we decided to try to do that. I wound up going to the University of Memphis and graduating from there in 2013. I knew I wanted to be in the courtroom. and I knew I wanted to help people. I thought the best way to do that would be either in the district attorney’s office or the public defender’s office, and I wound up working in both.”
Growing up, Judge Turnbow had no concept of what a judge did. That all changed the summer after his first year of law school, when he participated in a program that paired him with Circuit Court Judge Robert Burch, in the 23rd district where he grew up.
“He would let me ride with him to every county, said Judge Turnbow. “I would watch court, ask questions, just a wealth of knowledge he gave me. And he also helped start the drug court program here in the 23rd district. I got to kind of watch how that worked. I was so impressed by that program and the impact it can have on peoples’ lives and the impact Judge Birch had on peoples’ lives through his judgeship. That was the first time it kind of entered my mind that, hey, this would be a really neat goal to have.”
When the opportunity to become a circuit court judge in the 23rd district came up, Judge Turnbow had been at the public defender’s office a couple years and had spent nine years in the district attorney’s office.
“I thought I may as well try because it would be a dream come true,” he said.
Judge Turnbow was appointed to the 23rd judicial district circuit court by Governor Bill Lee on Sept. 9, 2024. He was sworn in on September 13 by Dickson County Circuit Court Judge David D. Wolfe, with his wife, children, parents, grandmother, friends and colleagues present.
“Judge Birch’s judicial assistant, when I was there with him, is now the judicial assistant for Judge Wolfe,” said Judge Turnbow. “Judge Birch passed away in 2017. I did not have a robe to be sworn in with because it was really quick. Judge Birch’s family had let Miss McKinny, his judicial assistant, keep a robe and she let me wear that during the swearing in ceremony. That was super special.”
Although donning the robe had him feeling a bit terrified and very humbled, Judge Turnbow said he is ready to do a good job and be a fair judge.
“My goal here is to always seek justice and to do justice, but while doing justice to seek opportunities to show mercy where justice can still be done and everything I do, do with humility,” he said. “If I can do those three things, I think at the end of the day it will be a success.”
The 23rd judicial district covers five counties: Cheatham, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys and Stewart. Judge Turnbow grew up in Charlotte, in Dickson County, just a couple miles from the courthouse where he will preside.
