Judge Ty Hands

Judge Ty Hands is a devoted mother, committed community servant and race equity change agent. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Judge Hands was the first in her family to go to college.  She attended Winston-Salem State University where she graduated magna cum laude and went on to receive her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. 

Judge Hands began her legal career clerking on the NC and Nevada and  Supreme Courts. She thereafter practiced complex commercial litigation for a large law firm in Charlotte; then stepped out on faith and built a thriving law firm from the ground up. She was honored with a Gubernatorial appointment to the District Court bench in 2009 and is serving her fourth term.

Judge Hands serves as a keynote speaker, instructor and panelist including being the primary School of Government Domestic Violence trainer for North Carolina’s new judges, magistrates, prosecutors and clerks. She also trains in race equity, implicit bias and vicarious trauma.

Fluent in Spanish and active in her community, Judge Hands has been recognized with numerous accolades and awards including being an inductee of the Negro and Professional Women’s Hall of Fame, Charlotte's 50 most Influential Women award, Winston-Salem State's 40 under 40, A Lawyers Weekly Woman of Justice and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Woman of the Year. Yet, if you ask her, she would say that her greatest honor, by far, is being a Mother to her ten and thirteen year old boys.