Whether you must be a lawyer before serving as a judge depends on the requirements of the jurisdiction where you will serve. There aren't any legally-established qualifications for justices serving on certain federal courts -- including district courts, circuit courts and even the United States Supreme Court. On the local judicial level, each state legislature has discretion to set its own qualification requirements for judges. Twenty-four states allow nonlawyer judges to preside over certain types of judicial cases, as of 2014.