While working as a nurse manager at Kindred Hospital, Caroline drove to Durham, N.C. three nights a week to attend North Carolina Central University's School of Law. She was admitted to the North Carolina Bar Association after passing the exam on her first attempt. She did all of this while raising her three children as a single mother.

 

After completing law school, she served the public as an Assistant District Attorney and at the time she was elected she was the primary Assistant District Attorney for the Greensboro Juvenile Court of Guilford County. As a prosecutor she was honest, fair, and impartial, and her priority was to ensure justice was served fairly and equally. The same qualities she brought to the bench. Her peers describe her as being tough but fair and consistent in her approach.

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In addition to being an attorney, she is also a registered nurse and because of her passion for caring for the medically complex patients she continued to work in both fields as an Assistant District Attorney (Monday-Friday) and a Registered Nurse (Saturday-Sunday), until her motor vehicle accident on January 8th, 2020. Her compassion for the sick plus her great work ethics are traits that allow her to be the Judge she is today, one that is reliable, competent, effective and renders judgment with compassion.

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Judge Pemberton was no stranger to the courtroom when she got elected in 2020. From 2007-2020 she worked as an assistant district attorney in courtrooms including criminal, domestic, traffic, juvenile, felony probation, and specialty courts (mental health and juvenile drug court). As the Primary Assistant District Attorney for juvenile court, Judge Pemberton applied her experience, compassion, and dedication to equal justice under the law to every case, qualities she took with her to the bench as a presiding Judge in Juvenile Delinquency Court. Judge Pemberton views her role as a Juvenile Court Judge as an opportunity to protect not only the safety of the community but also to rehabilitate juvenile offenders. She strives to prevent juvenile offenders from becoming a permanent part of the judicial system. 

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One of Judge Pemberton's political concern was to make sure justice was swift and fair. Her extensive experience in the courtroom allows her to manage heavy caseloads efficiently and effectively. She has been instrumental in reducing heavy courtroom dockets and ensuring that defendants' cases are resolved promptly and efficiently. All Defendants who entered her courtroom are given an opportunity to be heard and treated fairly without regards to race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality or socio-economic status. Judge Pemberton is a tremendous resource for the community.

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Being a woman of strength, endurance and integrity she led her campaign to victory in the March 2020 Primaries despite the unexpected loss of her beloved son Brian on September 1, 2019 and sustaining multiple serious injures from being ran over by a car as a pedestrian on January 08, 2020. Despite still grieving the loss of her son, enduring hospitalization and rehabilitation and temporarily paralyzed for almost one year, she remained active in her campaign because she strongly believed Guilford County deserved a Judge who is committed to the people and who is a strong advocate for justice.

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Judge Pemberton believes that a Judge should not only be active within the courtroom but should also be actively involved in the community on a continuous basis. When she is not in the courtroom she can be found volunteering her service with non-profit organizations and is a member of several organizations that provide services to the community:

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• NAACP-WIN Committee (Greensboro Branch)

• National Council of Negro Women Metropolitan Greensboro

• League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad

• Democratic Women of Guilford County

• African American Caucus-Greensboro

• Greensboro Bar Association

• Guilford County Black Lawyers Association

• A& T Gate City Alumni

• NCCU Alumni Greensboro Chapter

• Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc-Beta Nu Zeta Cha[ter 

• North Carolina Board of Nursing-active licensed member

• Jamaican Association of Greensboro

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She also created the Facebook group Mothers' of Missing Soul (MOMS) which consist of mothers who have lost a child and who she believes would benefit tremendously from being among other mothers who understand truly the extend of each other's loss. 

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In memory of her son Brian, she created the Brian Pemberton Christmas Project which sponsors children of single parent families for Summer Camps, Thanksgiving and Christmas.