Judge Robert L. Childers (retired) was the presiding judge of Division 9 of the Shelby County Circuit Court from 1984 to 2017. He was chair of the Civil Pattern Jury Instruction Committee since for 25 years. Judge Childers is a past president of the Tennessee Judicial Conference and the Tennessee Trial Judges Association. He also served as a Special Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Workers’ Compensation Panel and the Tennessee Court of Appeals. He is a past chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, created to assist lawyers and other legal professionals with addiction and other personal problems. He is a founding member, past president and Master of the Bench of the Leo Bearman Sr. Inn of Court. He was recognized as Outstanding Judge of the Year by the Memphis Bar Association in 1986, 1999, and 2006, and by the MBA Family Law Section in 2006. He was recognized as Outstanding Judge of the Year by the Shelby County Deputy Sheriffs Association in 1990; received the Judge Wheatcraft Award from the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence for outstanding service in combating domestic violence (2001); the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Memphis (2002); the Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award from the Tennessee Bar Association (2012); the Excellence in Legal Community Leadership Award from the Hazelden Foundation (2012); the William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award from Fellows of the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (2017); the inaugural Judge Robert L. Childers Wellness Award from the Memphis Bar Association (2017); and recognized as a Pillar of Excellence by the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law Alumni Association of the University of Memphis(2019). He has also been a faculty member at the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada-Reno, and the Tennessee Judicial Conference Judicial Academy, and has been a frequent lecturer and speaker at more than 275 CLE seminars and before numerous schools, civic, church and business groups in Tennessee and throughout the nation. He currently maintains a practice as a Mediator.