Biography

Statement

Judge James Gregory "Greg" Shaw, the son of James Hubert and Ruth Cooper Shaw, was born in 1957 and raised in Birmingham. The Shaw family roots extend into neighboring Shelby County, where his father, a retired businessman and a long-time member of the KeyMasters Gospel Quartet, was born and raised. To this day, the Shaw family name is synonymous in Alabama with great gospel singing.

Judge Shaw graduated from Auburn University in 1979, receiving a B.S. degree with a major in chemistry. He is married to S. Samantha "Sam" Shaw, the daughter of William M. and June Daily Slimp of Homewood. Judge Shaw met Sam while at Auburn, and the two married in August 1980. Sam was elected Alabama's State Auditor in 2006.

In 1982, Judge Shaw graduated in the top 10% of his class from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law. While at Cumberland, he received the American Jurisprudence Award for excellence in the study of evidence under Professor Charles Gamble, the author of the preeminent evidence treatise in Alabama.

After his admission to the Alabama State Bar in 1982, Judge Shaw worked with a small law firm in St. Clair County. He later started his own general law practice in Birmingham. In the fall of 1984, Judge Shaw joined the staff of Supreme Court Associate Justice Janie L. Shores and moved to Montgomery. After serving as Justice Shores's staff attorney for one year, he joined the staff of Supreme Court Associate Justice James Gorman Houston, Jr., in the fall of 1985, where he served as Justice Houston's senior staff attorney for over 15 years. Judge Shaw was elected to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000 and was reelected to the court in 2006. On March 16, 2007, Judge Shaw was appointed Chief Judge of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Judge Shaw completed the Master of Laws program at the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004, receiving the degree of Master of Laws (LL. M.) in the judicial process. He graduated with 30 other state and federal judges selected nationwide and he is one of only 3 judges from Alabama to participate in the program. Judge Shaw is an Honorary Master of the Bench of the Hugh Maddox Inn of Court in Montgomery, and he presently serves on the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism, the Alabama State Bar's Committee on Archives and History, the Alabama State Bar's Judicial Liaison Committee, the Alabama Pattern Jury Instructions Committee-Criminal, and the Advisory Committee on Criminal Procedure.

Judge and Mrs. Shaw have two sons. Gregory is a second lieutenant in the United States Army, having recently graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in engineering. Christopher "C.J." is a senior studying engineering at Georgia Tech. Judge Shaw and his family live in Montgomery, where they are members of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church. He is also a member of the Kiwanis Club of Montgomery.

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