Lippert appointed as District Court judge by governor

Starting in October, Michelle Lippert will be stepping up from the well to the bench and filling the vacancy created by the retirement of District Court Judge Richard Holloway.

Gov. Josh Stein announced on Aug. 21 that he would be appointing Lippert to serve as a District Court judge in Judicial District 36.

As a judge in District 36, Lippert will oversee cases across Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba county.

District Court cases in North Carolina involve civil matters like divorce, child custody, and cases involving less than $25,000, as well as criminal matters at the misdemeanor and infraction level, according to the website of the North Carolina Judicial Branch.

Lippert said the appointment paperwork is still being processed, though she plans to take the oath of office in October. She will finish Holloway’s term, ending in 2028, and run for a full four-year term at that time.

“I am excited to get started and grateful for the appointment,” Lippert said. “Making sure my current clients are taken care of is a top priority. I will be working with each client to help them with the transition.”

With this appointment, Lippert will no longer defend or represent clients as an attorney but will issue judgments and other decisions in District Court-level cases.

Until her appointment, Lippert worked across the district as a defense attorney, often appearing at the Burke County courthouse with clients facing criminal charges before rushing off to Caldwell County courtrooms.

After double-majoring in business management and political science at Miami University, Lippert went on to the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law. There, she participated in mock trials and interned with attorneys and judges.

In 2014, Lippert joined the district attorney’s office covering Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba counties.

“At that time, it was anticipated that new attorneys would go into district court — your low-level misdemeanor offenses, get used to the courtroom, etc.,” she said in an interview for a profile in late December 2025. “(I) got a call from the elected (district attorney) over the Christmas break before starting, indicating, ‘Hey, we’re going to put you straight into superior court.’ … I immediately started on felonies (and) property crimes. Then, pretty quickly, moved into the homicide and sex offenses over Burke County in 2016.”

In 2021, she partnered with Richard “Dick” Beyer, representing clients on everything from civil cases to criminal defense to property litigation.

Aside from Lippert, her husband, Scott, already holds a seat as a district court judge after being elected in November 2024.

Lippert explained that only one judge is ever in the courtroom, so she and her husband will maintain separate caseloads and dockets.

“Everybody’s entitled to protection of their rights,” she said in December, months before her appointment when discussing her philosophy as a defense attorney. “It’s not a matter of guilt-innocence. We don’t decide that. That’s up to the jury. That’s up to the members of their community. My job is to make sure that the law is followed and that everyone is entitled to their day in court, if they request it … Whether you have the hat of a prosecutor or a defense attorney, we’re all just mechanisms for the process to work.”