Graves began his legal career as a staff attorney at Central Mississippi Legal Services in 1980. He then worked in the private practice of law for three years, before returning to public service work. Graves served as legal counsel for both the Health Law Division and the Human Services Division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. He also worked as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Mississippi and served as the Director of the Division of Child Support Enforcement in the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
Mississippi state judicial service
In 1991, GovernorRay Mabus appointed Graves as a Hinds County Circuit Court Judge. Graves was then elected to the position later that year in a special election, in which he received seventy-seven percent of the votes cast. Graves was later re-elected without opposition in 1994 and 1998. Graves was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court by Governor Ronnie Musgrove in 2001 and later won election to the Court in 2004. At the time, Graves was the only African-American Justice on the Court. The first African-Americans to serve on the Mississippi Supreme Court were Reuben V. Anderson, who served from 1985 to 1990, followed by Fred L. Banks Jr. from 1991 to 2001.
Federal judicial service
On June 10, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Graves to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to replace Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale, who assumed senior status on August 8, 2009. Although approved by Senate Judiciary Committee on December 1, 2010, the Senate failed to act on the nomination. Obama renominated Graves in January 2011, and the Senate confirmed him on February 14, 2011, making him the second African-American judge on the Fifth Circuit, after Carl E. Stewart of Louisiana. He received his commission on February 15, 2011.
Teaching experience
Graves has served as a Teaching Team Member of the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School since 1998. He has also held the position of adjunct professor at Millsaps College, Tougaloo College, and Jackson State University. Graves has taught courses in media law, civil rights law, and sociology of law and is jurist-in-residence at Syracuse University School of Law. Graves has also coached high school, college, and law school mock trial teams, including the Jackson Murrah High School mock trial team that won the 2001 state championship.
