A lawyer and a judge do opposite jobs in the same case: the lawyer advocates for one party, and the judge presides over the dispute and decides it.
The comparison is also a career path.
For the one bench whose published requirements our research verified — the federal immigration courts — the job requires active bar membership and seven years of post-bar legal experience.
Here is the difference in roles, path, pay and hours.
What does each do in a case?
In a contested case the two roles sit on opposite sides of the same proceeding.
The lawyer is the advocate: their job is to advance one party's position.
The judge is the decision-maker: they preside over the proceeding and decide it.
One role argues; the other decides.
The split shows up in the kind of work each does.
Think of the lawyer's side of a contested case as a spread from investigating facts and arguing motions through examining witnesses and negotiating settlement to presenting the case in court — and the judge's as the other direction: keeping the proceeding on track, ruling on disputes between the parties as it moves, and applying the law to the facts to reach a judgment.
Even the profession's vocabulary comes from the courtroom.
The word "bar" — as in bar exam and bar association — comes from the physical railing that divided courtrooms: the public sat outside it, while the judge, attorneys and their clients were permitted inside.
Lawyer and judge were on the same side of that railing; what separates them is the chair each one occupies.
In the federal wage data the two roles are counted as separate occupations: lawyers on one side, and on the other "judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates" plus "administrative law judges, adjudicators, and hearing officers."
That split matters for the rest of this page, because each occupation carries its own pay and employment numbers.
Do judges have to be lawyers first?
There is no single national answer: eligibility for a judgeship is written by whichever court system or agency fills the seat, and those rules are not uniform.
What the profession's own baseline looks like is well documented — the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that lawyers typically need a law degree and a state license, which usually requires passing a bar examination.
The bench whose published requirements our research verified is the federal immigration courts.
There, the Executive Office for Immigration Review's core requirements are an LL.B., J.D. or LL.M., active bar membership and seven years of post-bar legal experience — so for that bench the answer is yes: lawyer first, and a practiced one.
For other benches, our research did not confirm the eligibility rules, so treat the lawyer-first pattern as the shape of the route rather than a verified universal, and check the requirements with the court, commission or agency that fills the seat you have in mind.
Judgeship eligibility is set seat by seat
How do pay and hours compare?
The closest thing to a like-for-like comparison is the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage series: both occupations appear in the same May 2025 release.
The median annual wage for lawyers was $159,670, against $153,990 for judges, magistrate judges and magistrates and $117,860 for administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers.
| BLS occupation | Median annual wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Lawyers | $159,670 |
| Judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates | $153,990 |
| Administrative law judges, adjudicators, and hearing officers | $117,860 |
Two boundaries keep that table honest.
First, the lawyer distribution is wide: BLS puts the lowest 10 percent of lawyers under $78,360 and the highest 10 percent over $351,600, so an occupation median describes the middle of a very spread-out pay curve.
Second, BLS lawyer wage figures exclude self-employed lawyers and owners and partners of unincorporated businesses — partner and solo income is not inside that $159,670 at all.
On hours, BLS says most lawyers work full time and some work more than 40 hours a week, while self-employed lawyers may set their own schedules.
For judges, the sources behind this page hold no comparable hours figure — our research did not confirm one, so we will not imply the bench runs on an easier clock.
Our guide to how many hours lawyers work covers the lawyer side in depth.
Who becomes a judge and when in their career?
The verified evidence points one direction: practice years first.
The one bench with published requirements our research confirmed requires seven years of post-bar legal experience, and the record a candidacy is built from — cases handled, courtroom time, professional standing — comes from legal jobs, not from school.
The bench is also small relative to the profession that sits across from it.
BLS counted about 863,700 lawyer jobs (SOC 23-1011) in 2025, against about 25,300 jobs for judges, magistrate judges and magistrates and about 17,400 for administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers.
The outlook lines up the same way: BLS projects lawyer employment to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035 — faster than the average for all occupations — while judge and hearing-officer employment is projected to grow 2 percent, slower than average.
Who actually wins those seats — and by which route: election, appointment, merit selection or federal nomination — is a process question our how to become a judge guide maps route by route.
The rungs that come before the bench — firm associate, government lawyer, in-house counsel — are covered in our attorney careers hub.
Where to find attorney jobs
A judgeship starts from the legal career, and the legal career starts with a legal job.
If you are building the record a bench would one day weigh, our attorney job board lists law firm openings across practice areas and states, with posted pay visible where employers list it.
Career information, not legal advice. Judgeship eligibility and selection are governed by the courts, commissions and agencies that fill each seat, and the wage figures here are BLS statistics as of May 2025 — confirm current requirements with the body that fills the seat before you act on them.