Amber Brantley is used to achieving.
Brantley has an extensive legal resume. She got her start in the district attorney’s office in Valdosta. From there, she moved to the solicitor general’s office in Richmond County and on to her current role as assistant district attorney in Columbia County’s new judicial circuit, which began operations on July 22.
Brantley is also the first African American assistant district attorney in Columbia County.
MORE: Keeping Up With: Catherine Smith-McKnight
“I love setting goals for myself,” said Brantley. “It’s just been instilled me since I was a kid. You set goals, and you do what you need to do to obtain whatever goals you’ve set.”
The Effingham County native got inspired to become an attorney as a middle schooler watching law shows. After high school, she earned an associate degree in criminal justice from Georgia Military College, followed by a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a paralegal minor from Valdosta State University. While an undergraduate, she interned in the public defender’s office and then worked as an administrative assistant for two years before attending the Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville to earn her law degree in 2016.
[adrotate banner=”54″]
Brantley continued working at the Valdosta District Attorney’s office before coming to Augusta as assistant solicitor general in 2019. Solicitor General Omeeka Loggins offered Brantley the position after they met at a training event in Atlanta. While in that office, she served as team lead under Judge Kellie McIntyre and helped establish the Domestic Violence Accountability Court.
Bobby Christine, Columbia County district attorney, recruited Brantley for her current role. She will be team lead under Judge Sheryl Jolly.
“Amber Brantley is the rare lawyer who combines leadership abilities, mastery of the law and interpersonal skills,” said Christine.
Brantley said she’s ready for the challenge.
“I just want to work hard,” said Brantley. “I want to feel like the community can trust me, that they see someone they can relate to, who will be fair and just.”
Brantley sees opportunity and responsibility in her present position as well as in the journey that got her there. As a person of faith, she is driven in part by the belief that her career is a vocation for the purpose of making a difference.
“I just want to do the will of God and what he called me to do,” said Brantley. “That feeling I had as a child; I don’t take that lightly.”
[adrotate banner=”19″]
Brantley’s path has offered several platforms and notoriety that she applies to accomplish her overall aims of making a positive social impact. She is vice president of the Augusta Region of the Association of Black Women Attorneys; she is among the Top 10 in 10 Young Professionals to Watch in 2021; and she is a member of the Young Lawyers Division for the Georgia State Bar, to name just a few.
These roles represent opportunities to mentor not only aspiring attorneys, but to inspire those in her community. This means not only showing that African Americans do not have to be excluded from great opportunities but also that diversity is present in Columbia County in its prospects and its approach to making sure the public gets justice.
MORE: Georgia’s Newest Judicial Circuit is in Business
“I feel that any district attorney’s office, there should be fair representation of the public, of the community,” said Brantley. “That’s what really motivates me, to really be able to impart in other people’s lives, to be that inspiration or that light for others.”
Brantley is the first in her family to graduate college and to become an attorney. She is also a wife and mother, with a 12-year-old stepson and a three-year-old daughter. Honoring her family legacy and being a role model for her son and her daughter are why she continues to achieve.
“I want to make her proud,” said Brantley, referring to her daughter. “Make my family proud, my community proud.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”56″]
