This is part of series on Judges and the Judiciary
Post 1 Selecting Judges In America Is A Failure
Post 2 Judges Must Be Trial Lawyers First
Post 3 America Replaced Barristers With Law Office Paper Shufflers
Post 4 Every Business and Entrepreneur Needs a Trial Lawyer Eventually
Post 5 Why Appellate Judges Must First Serve as Trial Judges
Americans entrust judges with their liberty, their property, their businesses, their families, and sometimestheir lives. Yet politicians nominate them. Governors appoint them. Judicial screening committees recommend them. Bar associations evaluate them. Inadequately informed voters elect them. No wonder public confidence in the courts continues to erode.
America selects the wrong lawyers as Judges
America routinely elevates lawyers to the bench who have never mastered the craft of trying cases. That practice weakens the judiciary and undermines justice.
A lawyer who spends twenty years negotiating contracts cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
A lawyer who spends twenty years reviewing documents in a quiet office cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
A lawyer who spends twenty years writing briefs and memoranda cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
Lawyers become trial lawyers by trying cases, by examining witnesses, challenging evidence, arguing motions, selecting juries, and presenting cases to judges and juries. Yet the American legal profession continues to pretend that all lawyers are qualified to become judges. They are not.
Judges come from courtrooms, not classrooms
Courtroom advocacy is a specialized professional discipline that requires years of practical experience as a trial lawyer trying cases in a Courtroom.
A trial judge must evaluate evidence, assess credibility, control proceedings, rule on objections, manage lawyers, and protect the integrity of the trial process. No law school teaches those skills. Law schools teach legal theory. The defects in legal education run much deeper than most lawyers admit.
No academic degree confers courtroom judgment. Lawyers acquire those skills through years of courtroom experience, and Americans should stop pretending otherwise.
America Replaced Barristers With Law Office Paper Shufflers
For centuries, common-law systems recognized a simple reality. Some lawyers, the “solicitors” advised clients. Other lawyers tried cases and resolved controversies, the large time-billing law firms, it does not serve justice.
Judges must be trial lawyers first
America should treat courtroom experience as the essential qualification for becoming a judge.
America should select trial judges only from experienced trial advocates.
America should select appellate judges only from experienced trial judges.
A surgeon learns surgery by operating. An airline pilot learns to fly airliners by flying airliners. A trial judge should first learn how to try cases in a courtroom.
The quality of justice depends upon the quality of judges. The present system rewards credentials, connections, politics, and professional prestige while treating courtroom competence as an afterthought. That approach weakens the judiciary and damages public confidence in the courts.
America can do better.
Selecting Judges in America Is a Failure
June 8, 2026 | Judges, Policy Analysis
This is part of series on Judges and the Judiciary
Post 1 Selecting Judges In America Is A Failure
Post 2 Judges Must Be Trial Lawyers First
Post 3 America Replaced Barristers With Law Office Paper Shufflers
Post 4 Every Business and Entrepreneur Needs a Trial Lawyer Eventually
Post 5 Why Appellate Judges Must First Serve as Trial Judges
Americans entrust judges with their liberty, their property, their businesses, their families, and sometimestheir lives. Yet politicians nominate them. Governors appoint them. Judicial screening committees recommend them. Bar associations evaluate them. Inadequately informed voters elect them. No wonder public confidence in the courts continues to erode.
America selects the wrong lawyers as Judges
America routinely elevates lawyers to the bench who have never mastered the craft of trying cases. That practice weakens the judiciary and undermines justice.
A lawyer who spends twenty years negotiating contracts cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
A lawyer who spends twenty years reviewing documents in a quiet office cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
A lawyer who spends twenty years writing briefs and memoranda cannot manage a complex trial in a courtroom.
Lawyers become trial lawyers by trying cases, by examining witnesses, challenging evidence, arguing motions, selecting juries, and presenting cases to judges and juries. Yet the American legal profession continues to pretend that all lawyers are qualified to become judges. They are not.
Judges come from courtrooms, not classrooms
Courtroom advocacy is a specialized professional discipline that requires years of practical experience as a trial lawyer trying cases in a Courtroom.
A trial judge must evaluate evidence, assess credibility, control proceedings, rule on objections, manage lawyers, and protect the integrity of the trial process. No law school teaches those skills. Law schools teach legal theory. The defects in legal education run much deeper than most lawyers admit.
No academic degree confers courtroom judgment. Lawyers acquire those skills through years of courtroom experience, and Americans should stop pretending otherwise.
America Replaced Barristers With Law Office Paper Shufflers
For centuries, common-law systems recognized a simple reality. Some lawyers, the “solicitors” advised clients. Other lawyers tried cases and resolved controversies, the large time-billing law firms, it does not serve justice.
Judges must be trial lawyers first
America should treat courtroom experience as the essential qualification for becoming a judge.
America should select trial judges only from experienced trial advocates.
America should select appellate judges only from experienced trial judges.
A surgeon learns surgery by operating. An airline pilot learns to fly airliners by flying airliners. A trial judge should first learn how to try cases in a courtroom.
The quality of justice depends upon the quality of judges. The present system rewards credentials, connections, politics, and professional prestige while treating courtroom competence as an afterthought. That approach weakens the judiciary and damages public confidence in the courts.
America can do better.