Unarmored Talk

From Classroom to 2024 District Court Judge Candidate

• Kimberly A. Herrick • Episode 126

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What happens when a ninth-grade civics teacher decides to switch careers and becomes an attorney, CPA, or campaigns for an appointment to district court judge?

Attorney and CPA Kimberly A. Herrick gives us a backstage pass into her dynamic career and journey as a Cabarrus County, NC, 2024 District 25 Court Judge - Seat 3 candidate who is redefining justice with empathy. This segment underscores the crucial role of empathy in judicial decisions, affecting not just the defendants but the entire community. 

She shares heartfelt personal stories and family influences that have shaped an intrinsic understanding of people. We also explore the challenges and triumphs of campaigning for judicial office, including innovative strategies for community engagement through social media and public appearances.  

Listen in to learn why empathy is an indispensable quality for judges, and how this candidate's commitment to fair adjudication is making waves in the community.

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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in the show notes media on the parade deck just looking to show notes, or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people. Like everyone to unarmor talk podcast. I'm your host, mario P Fields. For those of you who have been supporting this podcast since 2020, again, thank you so much from the bottom of my five foot two and a half heart. I don't even know if that even makes sense, but you guys know that I'm going to throw some humor in there. You know how it goes and, for the first time, listeners and viewers welcome to an amazing show where guests remove their armor to have discussions without armor and talk about emotions and how those have impacted some of their life events and then how they thought through them right. To think is a choice and hopefully that improves the outcome of any situation while living. And last but not least, before I get to our amazing guests, check out wwwstillservinginccom.

Mario P. Fields:

This podcast is for charity. My YouTube channel and all of my social media is for charity and every money that's raised every cent, dime dollar, whatever that is raised on all of my productions they get donated to my nonprofit and we've been doing some great things since 2018. All right, the admin is done. You guys know the deal. Everyone. I have an amazing guest today. Her name is Kimberly Herrick. What's up, kimberly Herrick? How are you?

Kimberly A. Herrick:

I'm amazing. I'm so glad you described me as that. That's a great word, so, and it feels good to hear it I'm having a wonderful day, and yourself.

Mario P. Fields:

Yes, same here. Everyone and you guys know what to do. I'll jump right into the topic, but before I do that, kimberly has and I'll call her Kim for the show. She has been a practicing attorney, a CPA and more, for 20 plus years in Cabarrus County, north Carolina. She's done a lot of other things. You want to check her out, get on her LinkedIn profile and more. But, kimberly, can you do me a favor? Can you tell the listeners and viewers a little bit about yourself?

Kimberly A. Herrick:

Well, first and foremost, I love podcasts and I love your podcast, so I'm so excited to be a guest on one. And the things that I learn and just encounter from podcasts I can't stress enough, but I think people already listening know that. So I have. I actually started as a high school teacher and taught ninth grade in Durham and taught civics, and I had attorneys come in and speak to my students to convince them to go to law school and I don't know if they were listening, but I was and I thought that sounded great and I thought that I would, you know, be able to help more people. And and it turned out to be true, and well, I don't know more people, but you know in a different way. And then, as time progressed, I picked up some accounting skills as well. So I went and got that professional license as well, that professional license as well, and then sort of got into estate administration, estate planning, some civil, some criminal defense of adults and juveniles now I only do juvenile defense.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

And then in 2010, at the very end of 2010, someone approached me from the local bar about serving on the board of law examiners for the state of North Carolina, the professional licensing board and I didn't really know what it meant other than grading bar exams, and so I submitted my resume and my cover letters and my recommendations and about a month later, I got a letter back saying that they had appointed me, and I was like, really, so I was a little surprised and it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me, and about 10 years in, I became the chair and it was November of 2019, and I thought, well, I wonder if I will get to do anything important while I'm chair, because I gave my first bar exam and the most controversy we had was whether somebody was getting enough timed breaks.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

I was like, okay, this is not really what I was here for. And then, by the time March came around, I started realizing that I was going to have some decisions to make, and I was kind of the face of a state professional licensing board giving an in-person for 800 examinees bar exam in the Jim Graham building, and you know, from every direction, the people who wanted a what's called a diploma privilege were just beating me up with how I was going to cause a super spreader event, and they were. I was going to cause a super spreader event and they were contacting legislators and news stations and the governor got a call.

Mario P. Fields:

Every press conference Do you know, kim Herrick is giving an in-person bar exam.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

Who is this, kim? We knew it was going to be all right. You know we talked to public health officials every single day and it was already a social distancing exam in the Jim Graham building Ceilings like an airplane hangar, you know. So we took extra steps, had the highest passage rate we've ever had and not one single person got sick. And not one single person got sick. And if you had been on Twitter when I was giving the exam, you would have thought that I was personally going around and just infecting everyone. I mean, it was just, and we are one of the few jurisdictions that actually had it in person.

Mario P. Fields:

Thank you, you got tweets going.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

We have footage of kim personally coughing on 800 it was.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

It was very, very close to that, like the news came in and I let them in, just not even in the test, just in the lobby and there was somebody eating their breakfast without a mask on and one of the ringleaders screenshotted it and put it all over Twitter and we were just like I don't even know how to respond to this. But then when the passage rates came in and I realized we were one of the jurisdictions that had been able to actually give it in person, which is what we told people. We were going to do it in person, which is what we told people we were going to do. And we told everybody if you don't want to take it, you can move it out without any penalty. That's fine, we will not charge you anything, we'll let you come in.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

And then we had two online bar exams. First one was OK, second one, a technology nightmare. So I hope we never do that again. But with the decisions that we made in the face of you know things that people were saying, you just have to remember they're saying them because that's how they feel. You know you don't get to tell somebody that they're not scared. I mean they may have been scared, but also you know we deserve a little more confidence that we know what we're, the courage and faith to apply. You know to be an examiner.

Mario P. Fields:

And then, 10 years later, you're the chairwoman. I mean, you have COVID and we saw how turbulent that was, and so with this, you know, you have a consistent demonstration of you know what. I'm just going to have the courage to just do it. Let's talk about what's currently happening. You have, from my basic understanding, now you have taken the steps to, I want to say, run for an election of some sort.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

That is correct, my first time being on a ballot and actually the ballot hasn't even been printed yet. Right now it's just an Excel spreadsheet on the North Carolina State Board of Elections but I am. I am currently a candidate for district court judge c3 in cabarrus county, north carolina and this is, like you mentioned, my first time running for public office and asking the voters to give me a job that I feel like I am the most qualified person out of everyone else in the world.

Mario P. Fields:

I love it. You know, district court judge in Cabarrus County. Now, on the surface, we see Kim, this wonderful smile. I mean, I've gotten to know you over the phone and in here. That's why I keep smiling, because you're just an amazing human, but behind the scenes, unarmored. Let's remove some armor. Have there ever been times where you're like, what am I doing? Or, you know, you get some feedback and you're like okay, you know, talk to me about some of the behind the scenes emotions you had to think through.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

Well, you know, I had been talking to people about wanting to become a judge for a while and I didn't really think I was ready. I didn't know when I would know I was ready, because it's stressful. I mean, any given day you're going to have a lot of people mad at you and you have to be OK with that. I mean, you have to make decisions where all of your decisions have the potential to make somebody's life more difficult or make them think, you know, that the legal system doesn't work for them, unfortunately, and you're the face of it. So, you know, a lot of times when I'm up there, you know, ask myself this is really what you want to do, and I'm like, yes, it is because I feel like I'd be good at it. And I, you know, and actually after I was on the board of law examiners, I missed being able to make decisions, really important decisions, because I feel like my opinion is I'm good at it. So, and I, you know, I've had a little bit of feedback from others that that tend to confirm that. So, and I'm not saying, you know, I always make the right decision, but I'm going to make a decision One of my friends whose opinion I really trust and also my dad kind of encouraged me to consider submitting my name for the vacancy and one of the things that sort of kept me from running for judge is we have really good judges here and I don't personally see myself ever opposing one who's already doing a good job.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

That's just not the person that I am. To me that sends a message and I just don't feel like unnecessarily burdening someone with a campaign, because it's a lot of money, as I'm finding out, and it's not just money that you're flushing down the drain. I mean, it is to educate people on what it is district court judges do and why the candidate that you choose matters, because a lot of people don't know that. They don't think if I don't go to court, if I'm not getting you know assault charges or having custody hearings or things like that, that it doesn't affect me, which is is not the case. So I've been trying to educate people who don't know that or just discuss it with people who do, just so they understand some of the the finer points of it.

Mario P. Fields:

But as I mentioned there was.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

There was a vacancy, which is a whole other story because the statute recently changed and it's very complicated to explain how that works. But I'm happy to do that because that actually factors in.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, I'll tell you, kim, the one thing that I've learned about you and I'm glad you're on the show is you know, and I've you know, I've been to court before for some things. But to have a judge who cares, you know you can't send anyone to the University of Empathy or Sympathy. Those are soft skills that there's not enough money in the world that could buy that. And one thing that I love about you is I could tell you care about humans, regardless of the of the situation and what decisions you have to make. At the end of the day, you still care, and I believe that makes a big difference. Um, because you know nonverbal communication is is powerful. And to have a judge like you who actually even if, even if you got to sit Mario to whatever you know, jail or hold me accountable, at least I know you, you care, and that's powerful. What do you believe that gave you that ability to just care about humans? I mean from being a teacher to now running for district court judge.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

I mean, I had family growing up that never let me pass up an opportunity to understand the world from other people's point of view and I observed my entire growing up how they treated people and how they looked at people, how they treated people and how they looked at people, and just you know that.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

And just being able to experience and deal with emotional discomfort Because I think a lot of it is people don't like to get into situations where they're going to you know where they're potentially going to not know what to do or not know what to say, so they don't want to deal with it. And we didn't really do that. I mean, we engaged with people and we observed and interacted and, you know, helped when we could. But it was just I was surrounded by people who gave me a lot of, they trusted a lot in and, I guess, in my ability to interact with other people as well. So I kind of felt like I was able to make my own decisions and get to know people and have experiences and, you know, make bad decisions sometimes and that's OK.

Mario P. Fields:

So it just gives you a lot of confidence.

Mario P. Fields:

The power to tell your family. I said thank you, because look at, look at what that has done. Everyone I mean you guys heard of the power of of just allowing you know someone to develop and not putting your belief system on them. And now we have because I believe you're going to get appointed, my friend, and to have a a judge in Cabarrus County, a district court judge in Cabarrus County. Who cares? I mean, you almost kind of make me want to violate something just so I can see you.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

No, I'm just you're not the first person to say that.

Mario P. Fields:

you're not the first person to say that so yeah, so it, it, you know. I mean, you're continuing to do great things and and I'm not because I would be selfish like I do it all, I guess, and hold you forever, but uh, as as I let you go here in a minute to continue to do great things, how can people support you for this upcoming election?

Kimberly A. Herrick:

So I'm setting up, I've got my social media. I've. You know, people our age mainly use Facebook and Instagram. I have not, I've not really figured out the more modern formats, uh, but I will be working on on probably getting setting up a tiktok, but I've got a website that is in um in progress. But really, you know the, the social media. I've been kind of posting things that we're doing and sort of you know it's.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

I know it's kind of a goofy word, but our journey for example, today, myself and a bunch of younger civic-minded individuals who participate in the parade with me tomorrow are filling bags with my hold on. I'll say I've got. I have a sign and it my name is all over the place. I love it. I've got signs, t-shirts, pens.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

I'm going to have billboards in October, which is just like yeah, the thought of seeing my name on a billboard is just my heart is going to explode. I feel like a local celebrity, but you know, just kind of interacting, because when other people see that you're interacting, it it lets them know that you're really involved and it gives people a chance to ask questions and engage. And what I really want people to know is what my experience is, and not just law experience, but observing other people interacting with other people. A judge is a finder of fact. The judge determines what the truth is when two people go in and tell completely different stories. And I want people to understand what it is about me. That would make me a good person for that.

Mario P. Fields:

So just you know I know it sounds kind of just you know follow me and engage A person who cares about people and has the courage to make an accurate not the right or wrong decision, but an accurate decision. And that's what you want. That's the minimum thing. Matter of fact, that's all I would ask for if I had to go to any courtroom is can I have a judge like you? Because I want to speak this into existence, let me go to camp. I don't care if I'm in California or Idaho, I want to go to Cabarrus County to have this, this thing, you know, put if only we could.

Mario P. Fields:

Oh, yeah, that would be good just give me a judge that again cares about people and will make an accurate decision, and that's Kimberly Herrick. Thank you so much for being on the show. Do you have any last remarks, any piece of advice that you can give anyone who's probably hesitant about pursuing their dream or dreams, or maybe they even want to become a district court judge in the future, one day?

Kimberly A. Herrick:

The process involved. If it looks like it's going to be really complicated and take a whole lot of hard work, that means you're probably going to get a lot more out of it and you'll discover that as you go along. So just remember, when you've had a hard day, that tomorrow is a whole new day and you are I'm not even saying you're probably gonna feel different. You are gonna feel different and I've enjoyed. Somebody gives me an event and I'm an early bird, and they give me a late at night, which really I don't even want to tell you what that means, so supportive and so so you know you you never know until you actually experience it. And then you look back and say, okay, she was right, or whoever told you to do that was right. So, and I just I love Cabarrus County. I mean, moving here was really one of the best decisions I ever made.

Mario P. Fields:

So I hope to give back to them.

Mario P. Fields:

You guys heard of Cabarrus County in North Carolina and, just like Kim said, hey, if it seems super hard, go for it. You're just going to make you better and self-reflect and learn from it. Everyone, I have to roll. You guys know the deal. This will be a special episode, but you know a couple of weeks. You can hear me, if you like, to listen to me or get on my YouTube channel and watch this amazing video. So as I sign off, god bless. I will continue to pray that God bless all the listeners and viewers, your family members, your friends and more. Kim, be safe. Let's get appointed this year.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

Thank you. I have enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to November let's go.

Mario P. Fields:

November 2024, let's do it. Kim, you have a wonderful day.

Kimberly A. Herrick:

Take care you do as well, thank you.

Mario P. Fields:

Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.

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