- A person who wants to become a federal judge must follow a certain process. He cannot just submit a resume, obtain an interview and find himself on the bench a few months later. The U.S. Senate or members of the U.S. House of Representatives recommend potential candidates as federal judges to the U.S. President. The President, in turn, nominates one candidate out of all of the potential candidates. The Senate then confirms the candidate who becomes a federal judge. Federal judges can serve for the remainder of their lives.
- Federal bankruptcy judges are different from other federal judges in that they are appointed by different methods and serve for a limited number of years. In the case of a federal bankruptcy judge, appointment occurs in the following manner: The majority of judges of the U.S. court of appeals appoint federal bankruptcy judges to serve as officers of the U.S. district courts that handle bankruptcy matters. These judges serve for a period of 14 years rather than life terms.
- In order for a person to serve as a bankruptcy judge, he needs to understand legal rules and procedures. As a result, the candidates who wish to become bankruptcy judges have law degrees and have practiced law. Candidates to become bankruptcy judges need not have practiced bankruptcy law in the past. The type of experience they have matters immensely, however. Because judges invariably spend a lot of time trying cases in a courtroom, a candidate for the position of bankruptcy judge should have experience in litigation.
- The successful candidate for federal bankruptcy judge will likely have reached a point in his career where he owns a law firm or is a partner of a law firm, thus takes home a significant percentage of the firm's profits. If this is the case, the candidate will take a pay cut when becoming a federal bankruptcy judge. The salary for a federal bankruptcy judge is approximately $150,000.
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