Meet Regina
Regina is a native of Chicago, Illinois, where she matriculated, with honors, through the Chicago Public School System. She relocated to Georgia in 2001 after completing her collegiate studies, with high honors, at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Judge Matthews earned her Juris Doctorate Degree from Emory Law School in 2004, having received several scholarships during her tenure, to include the Emory Public Law Initiative Grant, and the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys Scholarship. These scholarships and grants helped Regina pursue paid summer internships with both the Chicago Legal Clinic, where she assisted attorneys in serving low-income residents in the Chicago area; and an internship with the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office representing indigent clientele facing criminal prosecution in DeKalb County, Georgia.
Following her servant’s heart, upon graduation from Emory Law School, Judge Matthews was offered, and accepted, employment as an Assistant Public Defendant at the Office of the Public Defender, DeKalb County, Georgia. In her first year of representing clients in court, Judge Matthews won twelve of her first fifteen trials.
Judge Matthews later started her own law practice specializing in Criminal Law, Family Law, and Juvenile Law. Throughout her career, Judge Matthews tried cases in Superior Court, State Court, Juvenile Court, Municipal, and Recorder’s Court in courts all across the state of Georgia. She also did regular pro bono work with the Truancy Intervention Program and the Geogia Justice Project. During her career, she has also served as a Senior Staff Attorney in Gwinnett County Superior Court and as a Law Clerk with the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia. In 2019, Judge Matthews was appointed by all eleven Gwinnett County Superior Court Judges and the Chief Magistrate Judge of Gwinnett County to serve as a full-time Magistrate Judge, where Judge Matthews currently serves. In this role, Judge Matthews sits by designation primarily for Superior Court; but also handles cases in State Court, Recorder’s Court, Juvenile Court, and Probate Courts, presiding over a vast array of cases including family law, felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, and general civil litigation.
When not on the bench, or out serving the community, Judge Matthews can be found enthusiastically cheering on her two sons on the sidelines of the soccer field, gardening, traveling, reading, watching basketball, spending time with family and friends, or enjoying the arts.
Judge Matthews lives in Lilburn with her husband Michael, a Gwinnett County Public School teacher, and two sons. Judge Matthews is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Gwinnett and North Fulton Counties, a mother member of Jack and Jill of America, Inc.; a member of the National Council of Negro Women, and the League of Women Voters. Professionally, Judge Matthews has membership in the Gwinnett County Bar Association, the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, Gate City Bar Association, Georgia Alliance of African American Attorneys, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association.
