Judge Lucy Inman brings to Milberg wide ranging experience in civil litigation and more than a dozen years serving North Carolina as a trial and appellate judge. As a Milberg Partner working out of its Raleigh office, she focuses on the firm’s appellate work.
Judge Inman earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with highest honors from NC State University in 1984. She was inspired to pursue a legal career during her first job out of college as a newspaper reporter, when she covered courts and learned how the justice system profoundly affects people’s lives every day.
Judge Inman earned her law degree with honors in 1990 from The University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill, where she served as an articles editor for The North Carolina Law Review. She clerked for Chief Justice Exum of the North Carolina Supreme Court and practiced civil litigation for 18 years, first in Los Angeles, then in Raleigh. Her first jury trial was covered gavel-to-gavel on Court TV. She has represented businesses, celebrities, death row inmates, and survivors of negligence, fraud, and sexual abuse.
From 2010 through 2014, Judge Inman served as a Superior Court judge in North Carolina, presiding in communities large and small. Of the thousands of rulings she made in trials and hearings, seven were reversed on appeal. Judge Inman won statewide election to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and served there from 2015 through 2022, authoring more than 450 appellate opinions, including decisions on issues of first impression in constitutional, criminal, civil, and administrative law. Fewer than three percent of her appellate opinions were reversed.
Judge Inman serves on the Judicial Independence Committee of the National Association of Women Judges. She has served in leadership roles in the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. She has presented continuing education programs for judges and attorneys on topics including professional ethics, trial and appellate practice, legal writing, and the connection between self-care and a healthy work environment. She is passionate about writing, editing, and collaborating with colleagues. She applies the insight gained from a neutral perspective to advocate most effectively on behalf of the firm’s clients.
Judge Inman is married to Billy Warden, a writer and founder of a public relations agency who moonlights as a front man for a rock band. They live in Raleigh and have two adult children, as well as a lab mix who keeps their nest from being empty. Outside the office, she enjoys travel, art, music, reading, cooking, yoga, and pickleball.
In The Media
Attorney At Law Magazine – Attorney of the Month Feature: The Art of Communication
Practice Areas
Education
- J.D., University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill, with honors, 1990
- B.A., North Carolina State University, summa cum laude, 1984
Awards
- North Carolina’s Legal Elite, Business North Carolina Magazine, 2024
Professional Activities
- American Bar Association, Judicial Division, Council of Appellate Lawyers, Member
- Law360 North Carolina Editorial Board, Member
- National Association of Women Judges, Judicial Independence Committee
- North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Practice Section, Member
- North Carolina BarCARES, Vice President
- Lucy Daniels Foundation, Chair
- Roanoke Island Historical Association Board of Directors, Member