RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - Yadkinville attorney Valerie Johnson Zachary has been appointed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. She fills the vacancy created by the recent retirement of Judge Sanford L. Steelman, Jr.

 Gov. Pat McCrory made the appointment on Thursday.

“Valerie Johnson Zachary brings to the Court of Appeals a first-class legal mind as well as a long history of practicing law at the community level,” the governor said in a statement.

 She comes to the bench from the Zachary Law Offices of Yadkinville where she has maintained a general practice since 1989. She is a partner of the firm.

 Zachary is a graduate of Harvard Law School and worked as a research assistant for Constitutional Law Professor Laurence H. Tribe.  

She is a member of the bar for all North Carolina state courts, the United States District Courts for the Western and Middle Districts of North Carolina as well as a bar member for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Tax Court.