BACKGROUND

Johnell Mosby Matthews was elected judge of Baton Rouge City Court, Division C in the general election in August, 2020. 

Judge Matthews earned a bachelor’s degree in French and English with a minor in Spanish from Southern University in Baton Rouge in 1972.  She later studied French at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France for an academic year.  In 1976, she earned a master’s degree, summa cum laude, in French language and literature from Louisiana State University.  After serving 20 years in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System as a French and English teacher, Supervisor of Foreign Languages, and Assistant Principal in middle and high school, she earned her JD degree, cum laude, from Southern University Law Center in 2001.  She is a member of the Louisiana and Mississippi Bar Associations. 

From 2001 until her election to the bench, she worked at Matthews & Matthews Law Firm in Baton Rouge, with a practice in Louisiana and in Mississippi.  She is married to attorney Johnnie L. Matthews, and they are the parents of three adult children.