Case studies of all levels of the judiciary are available on the Judicial Appointments Commission website. Scroll down for more interviews and case studies.
Case studies: Judges
The following case studies are from a series of interviews by the Law Society Gazette challenging some of the myths surrounding judicial appointment.
- Her Honour Judge Frances Kirkham
- District judge Michael Walker CBE
- District judge (magistrates' court) Tan Ikram
- Lord Justice of Appeal Gary Hickinbottom
- Deputy High Court judge Alexandra Marks
Case studies: tribunal judges
Pieter de Waal, General Counsel at the Law Society and a fee-paid judge at the Information Tribunal, describes his current position, career highlights and judicial role.
Thaira Bibi, a salaried immigration judge and a nominated diversity and community relations judge, describes her career, the skills she brought to the bench as a solicitor, and her tips for solicitors thinking about becoming a judge.
Case studies: becoming a High Court judge or deputy High Court judge
David Stone talks about the telephone assessment part of the application for a role as a Deputy High Court judge in a JAC video case study.
Mr Justice Murray offers his valuable advice and experience to solicitors who are applying for appointment to the Bench in our podcast and in a JAC case study.
Tim Smith, BCLP partner and Deputy High Court Judge, talks to Yael Levy Ariel about his judicial career, shares advice to aspiring solicitor judges and explains why he thinks appointing more solicitors to the bench is important in our podcast.
Case studies: Recorders
In the following case studies, solicitors write about their experience of becoming a judicial recorder:
Comments from judges
The following comments describe two solicitors' experience of becoming a judge:
"I think solicitors have become more specialist and that narrows your field of work and then when you start to sit as a judge you have got to be available to do a much wider range than your practice. You are learning all the time as you face new situations. And you have to use your knowledge and intellectual ability and your knowledge keeps growing."
"I knew nothing about immigration when I applied for it, because you can pick it up. I knew nothing about financial regulation when I started off, but actually what they're looking for is a generalist, somebody who knows about evidence and procedure on the basis that if you've been doing it for seven years in whatever field. You're probably intelligent enough to pick up the actual law, as long as you've got the procedure and the evidence under your belt, which you should do after seven years."
