Jennifer Young: Employment Judge

Background

I had never thought of becoming a judge, as it seemed to be something that barristers in independent practice did, and I was an in-house employed barrister and had no judicial experience. However, I was in touch with a former colleague who I had worked with in local government, and he had become an Employment Judge. It was when I found that out that I thought, for the first time, maybe I could become a judge as I knew he was a solicitor and didn’t have judicial experience either.

Application

I worried that maybe I wasn’t the right kind of person to be a judge, so I didn’t look into it until another solicitor that I had instructed whilst in-house told me about the Pre-Application Judicial Education programme. She said that she had done it, and she thought that it would be something that I would benefit from and that I should consider applying to become an Employment Judge. I looked into the programme and applied.

I got onto the programme, and I really enjoyed the problems and issues that we discussed, and it was then that I thought that I could possibly be a judge.  The application process for a salaried role was extremely long to the extent that I had moved into another role by the time I heard that I had an interview. I was convinced that I had messed up the interview and so I actually forgot about it. I didn’t think I would get it on my first application as I had not even applied for a fee-paid role. When I received the offer of a salaried role, I was very shocked but delighted at the same time.

The role

The first year of becoming a judge direct from the bar was really hard work and a baptism of fire for me as I had a really big case in my first six months. Initially, I had to work all the time to keep up with judgments and orders and it can be relentless. One of my more experienced colleagues said to me in my first week to remember that life as a judge is not a sprint, but a marathon and he was absolutely right. But it does get a lot easier and in my second year I now have down time.

Whilst judgment writing is the thing I have found the hardest to do, it is also the thing that I enjoy the most when I get a really interesting case. I enjoyed being an advocate and making oral and written arguments, but I wanted to explore new challenges, and they didn’t come very often in my previous role. I have been lucky since becoming a judge (although it did not always feel it at the time) to deal with some really interesting areas of law and I really enjoy that challenge.

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