Judge Herbert E. Phipps was born to J.W. Phipps and Marion Gadson Phipps in Baker County, Georgia. He and his wife, Connie Curry Phipps, have a son, Herbert, Jr., who resides in Atlanta, and a daughter, India, who resides in Oceanside, California.

Judge Phipps earned a B.A. degree, with a major in Political Science, in 1964 from Morehouse College. He has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia and taught English at Thammasatt University and private schools in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1971, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University Law School in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as an editor of the Law Review.

Judge Phipps returned to Albany, Georgia in 1971 to join the general law practice of C.B. King. The firm emphasized civil rights litigation. They successfully represented plaintiffs in civil rights cases involving school desegregation, voting rights, jury discrimination, student rights, police brutality and discriminatory employment practices. From 1983 to 1995 Judge Phipps engaged in the solo practice of law.

In 1980, Judge Phipps was appointed part-time Magistrate and Associate Judge of the State Court of Dougherty County, where he served eight years. In 1988, he was appointed to the Juvenile Court of the Dougherty Judicial Circuit, where he served as judge for seven years. Governor Zell Miller appointed him Judge of the Superior Court of Dougherty Judicial Circuit in 1995, and he was elected to a four-year term in 1996. Governor Roy Barnes appointed him to the Court of Appeals of Georgia on July 12, 1999, and he was elected in November 2000 to serve a full six-year term. In November 2006, he was reelected to his second six-year term.

Judge Phipps was awarded a Master of Laws in the Judicial Process from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004. In January 2006, the State Bar of Georgia recognized Judge Phipps with the Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service. On September 7, 2007 he was inducted into the Society of Benchers of Case Western Reserve Law School.

Judge Phipps serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Security Bank & Trust Company of Albany. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. He is a member of the Georgia Committee on Access and Fairness in the Courts and of the Georgia Supreme Court Pandemic Commission, and serves as an advisor to the State Bar's Commission on Judicial Service. He is First Vice-President of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta. He is a member of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Albany and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Delta Delta Boule'. He is a member of several local, state and national bar associations.

Judge Phipps has served on Georgia's Judicial Nominating Commission, the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Racial and Ethnic Bias, and the Georgia Indigent Defense Council Advisory Committee. He is a former member of the State Bar Board of Governors and past President of the Dougherty Circuit Bar Association. He has served as President of the Albany Association for Retarded Citizens, the Albany Sickle Cell Foundation, the Faith Fund Foundation and The Criterion Club, and was a member of the 1987-88 Leadership Albany Class. He has served on the Albany Technical Institute Board of Directors, the Albany/Dougherty Chamber of Commerce, and the Southwest Georgia Home for Convalescent and Aging Persons.