Judge Alex McVeagh is one of five General Sessions Court judges in Hamilton County, Tennessee. After being appointed by Governor Bill Haslam in 2017, Judge McVeagh was overwhelmingly elected by the citizens of Hamilton County in 2022. Judge McVeagh obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Vanderbilt University and earned his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School. He previously worked as a civil litigator at Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel in Chattanooga, where he practiced in state and federal courts throughout Tennessee and Georgia. Judge McVeagh also previously served as Assistant City Attorney for the City of East Ridge and as Research Analyst and Law Clerk for the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee.

In addition to his regular civil and criminal dockets, Judge McVeagh helped created and still presides over Hamilton County’s misdemeanor Drug Recovery Court, which aims to rehabilitate individuals in the criminal justice system suffering from substance use disorder through treatment, strict supervision, drug testing, higher education, continued employment, and service to the community….all while saving Hamilton County hundreds of thousands of dollars in incarceration and recidivism costs.

In 2018 and again in 2021, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed Judge McVeagh to serve on its Access to Justice Commission, which provides collaborative leadership to create solutions and resources to address and eliminate barriers to justice for all Tennesseans. During this time, Judge McVeagh helped start an online dispute resolution pilot program in Chattanooga aimed to assist healthcare providers and patients in resolving outstanding medical debt before a lawsuit is filed. Judge McVeagh also serves on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Technology Oversight Committee, where he helped draft standards for electronic filing in all courts throughout Tennessee, and regularly reviews applications from jurisdictions across Tennessee seeking to implement electronic filing in their courts.

For almost a decade, Judge McVeagh has organized Hamilton County’s local high school mock trial competition, and he continues to help organize numerous clinics, including expungement clinics and clinics that provide free estate planning documents to military veterans, police officers, firefighters and other first responders. The Chattanooga Bar Association has honored McVeagh in the past as both its Volunteer of the Year for his community service and his past service on the board of Legal Aid of East Tennessee. Judge McVeagh is a member of the Downtown Chattanooga Rotary Club and the Brock-Cooper Chapter of the American Inns of Court. Outside of his professional life, McVeagh enjoys spending time with his friends and family on the trails and rivers of Hamilton County.