(WGHP) — Long before she was appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court by Governor Roy Cooper, Allison Riggs spent time in key courts around the state as part of the organization Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

The organization is based in Durham. Riggs worked for people who, “wouldn’t have had access to great attorneys but for the pro-bono work.”

Now that she’s moved from litigant to judge, Riggs says she has the kind of “temperament,” as people like to say about judges, that is required for a position as important as the state supreme court.

“I pride myself on humility and curiosity, and I was trained as a scientist. I worked in a neurol toxicology lab for a long time,” Riggs said. “I want to get to the right answer even if I have to disprove my hypothesis to get there.”

She says it is key for people before the NC Supreme Court to know that the judges they’re standing before haven’t made up their minds before the case is heard.

“Having sat on the bench, there are cases where I was like, ‘That’s not what I thought about.’ Not that I had my mind made up … You read the brief, you go, ‘Oh, this argument seems better,’ you go into oral arguments. You go, ‘Oh, that’s different than I originally thought,’” Riggs said.

She says she saw justices being persuaded in their “conferences” that they hold before voting on decisions and described the process.

“Maybe I wouldn’t choose those words, and maybe another colleague would choose these words. Can we find some set of words that neither of us would have picked initially, but that we can find mutually agreeable,” Riggs said. “I don’t know how you do this job well unless you walk into it in good faith with the assumption, whether it’s true or not, that people are willing to listen to your argument.”

She insists she is as well.

“What I love about this … is I’m still learning,” Riggs said.

See more on Riggs in this Your Local Election Headquarters profile by Bob Buckley.