How to become a Judge

[PLATONiC]

I've already done some research on this through search engines, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of literature on the topic. Could someone please tell me if your school has a kind of "guide" to becoming a judge at any level?

[SteelReserve]

Step 1) Get involved in politics. Whether elected or appointed, you need serious political connections; you need your name out there in a good way and you need ins to the people who are connected to or make the appointment decisions. No set way to go about doing that, that's just classic networking, maybe get elected to a low level state position or even gun to be a state assemblyman.

Other than that there is no set path for becoming a judge. Just make sure never to cross any sort of ethical boundary under the rules of professional responsibility. Also realize that while if you get caught with, say, marijuana post-bar admission you normally won't have significant repercussions as a normal lawyer but if you want to be a judge, you'd essentially be disqualifying yourself for consideration. One judge I know was arrested for DUI and while he wasn't pulled from the bench, he was not later re-appointed.

[imchuckbass58]

Also, if you want to be a federal judge, get really, really good grades and be on law review.

Also, it's not a requirement, but a disproportionate amount of judges come from government practice (DA, US attorney, federal agencies) and academia. Judges are appointed from private practice, but it's rarer, relatively speaking, and even those appointed from private practice have prior public service.