Judge John M. Tyson was elected statewide in 2014 and presently serves on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. He also served as an elected Republican Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 2001 until 2009 and was commissioned as a Recall Judge from 2009 to 2014. Judge Tyson was appointed by Governor Pat McCrory as Chairman of the North Carolina State Ethics Commission

Judge Tyson maintains a conservative judicial philosophy that protects individual freedoms, self-defense, private property, parental and rights of the unborn, and the separation of powers where the legislature makes policy.  These core beliefs and foundations are reflected in his more than 3,500 judicial opinions over the past 20 years.  He was elected to and is a member of the North Carolina Republican Party Hall of Fame.

Judge Tyson is a North Carolina State Bar Board-Certified Specialist–Real Property Law–Business, Commercial, and Industrial Transactions since 2001 (re-certified in 2007, 2012, and 2017), and is the only North Carolina judge so certified. He holds the highest AV pre-eminent peer-reviewed professional rating from Martindale Hubbell–Lexis/Nexis. He was selected as a North Carolina Leader in the Law in 2019.

An advocate of life-long learning, Judge Tyson earned a Master of Laws in Judicial Process (LL.M.) from the University of Virginia School of Law (2004); a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business (1988); a Juris Doctor (J.D.) with honors from Campbell University School of Law (1979–Member of the Charter Class); and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A. that) from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (1974).

Judge Tyson has been teaching as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law since 1987 and last year at Elon University School of Law. Judge Tyson is a member of both the North Carolina and Virginia State Bars, a Certified Mediator and Arbitrator, is a past Commissioner of the North Carolina Property Tax Commission, and past elected Chairman of both the Cumberland County Joint Planning Board and the Cumberland Soil and Water Conservation District.

Judge Tyson’s over forty years of professional experience includes the private practice of law and senior level corporate real estate development and counsel positions with three national corporations. Judge Tyson is also a frequent continuing legal education author and presenter. Judge Tyson has been married to his wife, Kirby, for 46 years. They are parents of four children and grandparents to four children.