The Hon. Kay Spalding Robilio (Ret.) is a former judge for the 30th Judicial District Circuit Court of Tennessee in Shelby County. She was elected to the bench in 1990. Robilio retired on September 1, 2013.
She began her judicial career as a municipal court judge for Divison I of the Shelby County Municipal Court, following her election in 1983. Prior to joining the bench, Robilio was a prosecutor for the City of Memphis and worked in private practice. She began her legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. James M. Tharpe and the Hon. Irving M. Strauch with the 30th Judicial District Circuit Court in 1980.
Robilio earned a bachelor’s degree in English and French from the University of Memphis in 1973. She then completed a J.D. at the University of Memphis, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, in 1980.
Robilio was raised in Cooper-Young, Tennessee. An only child, she enjoyed reading comic books and drinking Kool-Aid in her playhouse in the backyard. Her father was a union worker at the Tennesee Brewery Company, and her mother was a homemaker. Robilio was determined to pursue her legal education at a time when it was assumed that most women would work in the home. She attended law school part-time while raising her two daughters, alongside her husband, Victor Robilio, Jr.