<p>I was wondering what you would do to become a judge. I was always intrigued by this but I've been told that I'd have to become a lawyer first. I'm kind of hesitant in the whole lawyer profession so I was wondering if this was true. So i guess my question is... how does one become a judge? More specifically a federal judge?</p>
<p>Take a look back to 6/26 on this Board "Path to Becoming a Judge" and you'll find a few answers to the same question.</p>
<p>If I recall correctly you don't <em>NEED</em> to be a lawyer to be appointed to the bench. But I'm sure something like 99% of judges were once lawyers.</p>
<p>If you didn't go to law school, you would still be qualified to be a Justice of the Peace (at least in my state). The downside of course is that your case load will mainly consist of traffic citations and MIPs.</p>
<p>So other than law school, it seems that powerful friends are the real key. That's interesting...</p>
<p>Judges are political appointees, for the most part. So you need to be qualified (which in California means a minimum of 10 years experience as a lawyer) and you need to do the things that political appointees do to get appointed. It's not realistically possible to be a judge without having a substantial amount of experience as a lawyer (nor should it be.)</p>
<p>There are both elected and appointed judges. </p>
<p>To answer the OP's question, all federal judges are appointed, typically after many years of lawyering (often as prosecutors in the attorney general's office or as lower lwvel judges), and I don't know of any who are not admitted to the bar in at least one jurisdiction.</p>
<p>There is a saying that "a judge is a lawyer who knows a politician."</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree with other posters that the best path to becoming a federal judge is to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney.</p>
<p>But you might consider this:</p>
<p>(1) if you are assigned a mafia or terrorism case, it may become necessary for you (or your family) to have bodyguards or to carry a gun. While I am all for the Right to Bear Arms, I would think schlepping a gun around all the time would get pretty old. Of course, every attorney faces some amount of danger from disgruntled clients. Judges, however, are in a position to be particularly subject to peoples' hatred.</p>
<p>(2) you have to listen to BS all day long. Of course, private attorneys have to listen to BS all day long. However, private attorneys are free to tell potential clients to go to hell. Judges are assigned cases and generally cannot turn them down simply because one or both parties are a Pain in the ***.</p>
<p>(3) As a judge, your behavior can and will be scrutinized much more carefully than that of the general population. If you like kinky porn, or cross-dressing, or flirting with your secretary, it's much more likely to cause a problem for you.</p>
<p>(4) On average, you make a lot less money than similarly qualified attorneys in private practice.</p>