The circuit courtroom was full Monday in Andalusia, as retiring District Judge Frank L. “Trippy” McGuire III swore in his replacement, Julie Sorrells Moody.

Moody, a partner in Albrittons, Clifton and Moody, P.C. in Andalusia, was appointed to replace McGuire by Gov. Robert Bentley earlier this month.

Following the ceremony Monday, Moody said she is both appreciative and anxious to get started.

“I ask you from this day forward, if you have any extra prayer time, that you keep me in mind,” she said. “I’m very honored by this opportunity, and I know I have a lot to learn. Gov. Bentley let me know honesty and integrity are very high on his agenda, and he expects them to be very high on mine.”

Moody also gave special thanks to her former partners, as well as to McGuire.

“I have to thank (my partners) for allowing me to be the first female lawyer, then the first female partner for the last 19 years,” she said. “To Judge McGuire, thank you for setting the standard so high. I have been given a great opportunity here, and I don’t take it lightly. I want to make a difference, just as Judge McGuire has done.”

Moody is an Opp resident who also served as municipal judge for the City of Opp from 1996-2009. She is now the first female district judge for Covington County.

Moody earned her undergraduate degree at Auburn and graduated from Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham in 1993. She was admitted to the Alabama State Bar that same year.

She participated in the Alabama State Bar’s Leadership Forum in 2006; served as Covington county Bar Association President in 1997-98; and served on the LBW College Foundation from 1998 until 2000, whcn she was president.

She is a member of both the Alabama Law Institute and the American Bar Association.

She and her husband, Rothel, have two children, Trey, 13, and Caroline, 10.

Moody’s term as District Judge for he 22nd Judicial Circuit of Alabama, which expires in 2016, officially begins today.