Judge
2025 - Present

Richard “Rich” Anderson is a native of Montgomery, Alabama. He is the son of Judge Walter Mark Anderson III and Jean Dearman Anderson, and the grandson of Judge Wilbur Elisha Dearman of Sumter County. After graduating from Trinity Presbyterian School, Judge Anderson studied English at the University of Mississippi. He went on to study law at Washington & Lee University, where he received his Juris Doctor in 2000.

Coming home to Montgomery, Judge Anderson was honored to have the opportunity to spend a year clerking with the late Justice Gorman Houston on the Alabama Supreme Court. There he learned from one of the hardest-working appellate judges that Alabama has ever had. From Justice Houston, Rich learned a great deal about appellate law, and how to be a good appellate judge.

After his clerkship, Judge Anderson entered private practice with a small firm in Montgomery. For the next six years he was in private practice focused on insurance coverage and tort litigation, representing both defendants and plaintiffs. In early 2007, Judge Anderson was asked to join the Capital Litigation Division of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. For the next eighteen years, he worked as an appellate prosecutor in the Capital Litigation Division, handling trial and appellate cases throughout the Alabama and federal courts.

In November 2024, Judge Anderson was elected to a six-year term on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Judge Anderson is a member of the Federalist Society, the Hugh Maddox Inn of Court, and has been active with many charitable organizations in Montgomery.

Judge Anderson has been married to Christina Anderson for nearly twenty years. For many years they have supported historic preservation efforts in Montgomery, having themselves restored several historic houses there. They live in Ramer, Alabama, where, in the company of their dogs and cats, they are restoring yet another historic home. They are members of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Montgomery, Alabama.