In this case, I think the ABA is right that a 36 year old lawyer who has never tried case is not qualified to be a district judge. The problem is that the ABA doesn’t have any credibility to make that determination. If my memory serves, the ABA didn’t have any issue with Elena Kagan’s nomination for SCOTUS, or with Goodwin Lieu’s nomination for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Neither had ever tried a case, but they had the right politics for the ABA.
Having “tried” or “not tried” a case is completely a false criterion. There’s way more to the practice of law than “first-chairing” at trial. In fact I would argue that while trial lawyers may be the best actors and publicity hounds, they are seldom the sharpest knife in the drawer, so to speak. Also, it has been my experience that trial lawyers seldom care about the “right outcome” in terms of justice. They mostly want to win. By the way, the ABA is useless.
My only qualification for judges is conservative and under 50. Under 40 is even better.