Judge Herbert Phipps, Georgia Court of Appeals (Photo: John Disney/ALM)Phipps was appointed a part-time magistrate, then a judge on the Dougherty County Superior Court. In 1999, Gov. Roy Barnes appointed Phipps to the Court of Appeals.Here is our Q&A:You worked with the civil rights lawyer C.B. King in Albany for years. What did you learn from him?By his example, I learned that racial injustice must never be tolerated and that it must beconfronted and fought on all fronts. He never backed down and was never discouraged bytemporary setbacks. He would say that we may not always win, but we will never stop fighting.He was persistent and tenacious in making a complete record, because he knew that often ouronly hope was on appeal. He never went anywhere without a court reporter, and that moderated the severity of the racist treatment from some of the judges.You grew up in segregated Georgia and worked for desegregation both before and after becoming a lawyer. In recent years, you have lamented that some civil rights battles need to be fought again. Could you be more specific, especially about whether those battles reside mostly in the legislative, executive or judicial branches of government?The struggle continues in voting rights, education, employment, criminal justices, health care,poverty, legal aid for the poor and elsewhere. Any gains that were made involved the executive,legislative and judicial branches. The setbacks have been because of the action or inaction ofeach of the three branches. For example, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court naively gutted the Voting Rights Act. Congress has done nothing to correct this wrong. So we must refight old battles.It will be a tough fight because we now have an executive branch that is more openly hostile tocivil rights than any since Woodrow Wilson 100 years ago. We have an apathetic anddysfunctional legislative branch. Our times cry out for courageous judges to hear litigation andfairly decide controversial civil rights cases.You have been praised for your judicial temperament. Given the stresses of deciding disputes between conflicting parties, what's the key to maintaining this temperament?There are three principles which are essential components of a proper judicial temperament:humility, fairness and courage. Humility is what has kept me from becoming intoxicated by theflattery heaped on judges. It is the reason that I have not succumbed to judicial narcissism.Humility makes me know that a judge is worthy of sincere respect, not by merely donning a robe or pompously displaying the trappings of judicial office but by performing the duties of the office faithfully and impartially without respect to person.Fairness is not often found in an unkind, impatient, ill-tempered judge. When people inquireabout a lawyer, they ask: “Will this lawyer fight for me?” When people ask about a judge, thequestion is: “Is the judge fair?”Courage may be the most important ingredient of temperament. A judge with the proper judicial temperament has the courage to do the right thing when the whole world is watching, no matter how difficult the social situation, and the character to do the right thing when no one is watching.What habits have you noticed that the most-persuasive lawyers who have practiced before you share?

You have said, “As a judge, you can't always be right. But you can always be fair.” What is something courts can do to make sure citizens come away from courts believing their cases were handled fairly?