The Hon. Johnell M. Matthews is a judge for the City Court of Baton Rouge in Louisiana. She was elected to the bench in 2020.
Prior to her election, Matthews was in private practice at Matthews & Matthews in Mississippi and Louisiana, where her practice focused on personal injury, wills, contested wills, successions, and family matters.
Matthews received a bachelor’s degree in English and French from Southern University (1972) and a master’s degree in French language and literature from Louisiana State University (1976). Prior to earning her master’s degree, she studied French abroad at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. Matthews spent the next twenty years in various roles in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, where she taught English and French, served as the supervisor of foreign languages, and sat as a middle and high school assistant principal. Then, in 2001, she completed a J.D. at Southern University Law Center.
She was admitted to practice in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Her memberships include the Louisiana City Judges Association, the Louisiana Judicial Council, the American Judges Association, the Dean Henry George McMahon American Inns of Court, the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce Leadership Association, the Baton Rouge Association of Women Attorneys, and the Volunteers in Public Schools Board.
Matthews was raised in Clayton, Louisiana. She and her husband, Johnnie, have three grown children and several grandchildren.
She is registered as a Democrat.