How can a lawyer become a judge in a common-law country?

In common-law countries, the path to becoming a judge is fundamentally different from the civil-law tradition. Rather than entering a specialized judicial career track immediately after graduation, a person typically spends a significant amount of time in the private practice of law, governmental legal service, or occasionally in law teaching.12

There is no competitive examination or specific judicial training required to become a judge in most common-law systems. Instead, lawyers are selected through appointment or election.12

Key aspects of this process include:
* Appointment: In many jurisdictions, such as England, appointments are managed by a Judicial Appointments Commission. In the United States, federal judges are appointed by the chief executive subject to legislative approval, while some states use the Missouri Plan, which utilizes a nominating commission to screen candidates.1
* Election: In various U.S. states, judges are popularly elected through either partisan or nonpartisan ballots.1
* Experience: There is no formal requirement for prior judicial or even courtroom experience in many common-law jurisdictions; lawyers may be appointed or elected directly to high-level courts.1

This system prioritizes selecting experienced legal professionals from the ranks of the bar, balancing democratic accountability with judicial independence.12