ESRW May 11th Lunch Meeting

Thomas Govan Bio:

Montgomery attorney, career prosecutor, and Air Force officer Thomas Govan announced that he will seek the Republican Party nomination for an open seat on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in the March 2024 primary.

Thomas Govan has spent his entire career in public service as a prosecutor. Govan currently serves as the Chief of the Criminal Trials Division of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, where he leads a team of attorneys who prosecute violent offenders and defend crime victims throughout the State of Alabama.

Govan also serves our country as a member of the United States Air Force Reserve. In 2016, Govan swore an oath to defend the Constitution and commissioned in the Air Force, where he currently serves as an officer.

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Govan earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama, where he served as Chairman of the College Republicans, and later earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law. After law school, he embarked on a career dedicated to public service.

For over fifteen years, Govan has protected the safety of Alabama families as a prosecutor in both state and federal courts. Govan prosecuted capital murder and death penalty cases on appeal for over a decade, rising to become the Chief of the Capital Litigation Division in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

As part of this extensive legal work, Govan litigated cases on behalf of the citizens of Alabama both in courts throughout the State of Alabama and in federal courts, including arguing a case before the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2018. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Alabama, where he defended the safety of Alabama families by prosecuting both violent offenders and offenders who committed various types of fraud against the citizens of Alabama in federal court.

Govan and his wife, Jessica, are proud parents of four children. Jessica is a teacher and small business owner. They are active members of their church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he serves as an Elder, Sunday school teacher, and member of the choir.

Thomas Govan is seeking Place 2 on the Court of Criminal Appeals, a seat that is currently held by Judge Chris McCool, who recently announced his candidacy for the Alabama Supreme Court.

Richard Anderson Bio:

Rich Anderson has been an attorney for over twenty-three years, beginning with a clerkship on the Alabama Supreme Court. Rich is currently in his seventeenth year with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, as an Assistant Attorney General tasked with representing Alabama in death penalty cases. Rich has dedicated his career to fighting in the appellate courts for the justice that Alabama crime victims  deserve. Rich’s work for the people of Alabama has taken him from courtrooms all across Alabama to Federal District Courts and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He's repeatedly won justice for Alabama in the United States Supreme Court.Rich is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and returned there after attending the University of Mississippi on scholarship and graduating from Washington & Lee University Law School. Rich and his wife, Christy, attend St. John’s in downtown Montgomery where they were married eighteen years ago, where his grandparents were married almost a hundred years ago, and where Rich bakes his scratch buttermilk biscuits for St. John’s popular Sunday breakfast. Rich and Christy are active in local charities and share a love of historic homes- together they have restored numerous houses, doing most of the work themselves. They reside in Montgomery’s historic Capitol Heights neighborhood.