• Past President of the Tennessee Judicial Conference, 1999-2000.
• Past President of the Tennessee Trial Judges Association, 1991-1995.
• Past Chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) 2007-2011, Commission member from 2000-2014.
• Served as Commissioner on the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program Commission (TLAP) from its inception in 1999 to 2009.
• Charter member, past President (2004-06) and Master of the Bench of the Leo Bearman Sr. American Inn of Court, 1995 - present
• Chair, Tennessee Judicial Conference Civil Pattern Jury Instruction Committee since 1991 (member since 1984) (Committee publishes the TENNESSEE PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS - CIVIL).
• Past Chair, Tennessee Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council, 1999-2007 (member from 1998-2012).
• Past Chair, Shelby County (TN) Domestic Violence Council, 1999-2000.
• Elected twice by fellow state court judges as Presiding Judge of the Thirtieth Judicial District, 1989-90 and 1997-98.

Hon. Robert L. Childers retired from the bench in 2017 after serving 33 years as a Circuit Court Judge in Shelby County. He was elected as Circuit Court Judge in 1984, and re-elected in 1990, 1998, 2006 and 2014 and served as a Special Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Workers’ Compensation Panel and the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Judge Childers is a frequent presenter in Tennessee and nationally on the topics of Mindfulness in the Law; Vicarious Trauma; QPR Suicide Awareness & Prevention Training; and Mediation. He has been a faculty member at the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada-Reno, and the Tennessee Judicial Conference Judicial Academy, and has been a frequent lecturer and speaker at continuing legal education seminars (over 250) and before numerous schools, civic, church and business groups in Tennessee and throughout the nation.