Chief Justice Paul Newby announced the following appointments effective January 1, 2021:

• Judge Paul A. Holcombe has been appointed to serve as chief district court judge for Johnston, Lee, and Harnett counties (Judicial District 11). He was elected to the court in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 and in 2016. Before serving on the Court, Judge Holcombe served as an assistant district attorney general in Tennessee and as an assistant district attorney in North Carolina Prosecutorial Districts 19A and 11. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991, and his juris doctor from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1994.
• Judge Toni S. King has been appointed to serve as chief district court judge for Cumberland County (Judicial District 12). She was appointed to the Court by former Governor Bev Perdue and assumed the bench in March 2009. Judge King received her undergraduate degree in English language and literature from North Carolina Central University in 1996, and her juris doctor from the North Carolina Central University School of Law in 2000.
• Judge Roy Wijewickrama has been appointed to serve as chief district court judge for Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties (Judicial District 30). He was first elected to the Court in 2010. Judge Wijewickrama received his undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and his law degree from Cleveland State University in Ohio. After graduating from law school, he worked as an assistant district attorney for the 30th Judicial District. Afterwards, he practiced law with the firm Kersten, Davis & Wijewickrama. In 2008, he was appointed as the tribal prosecutor for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians by Chief Mitchell Hicks.