We've heard a lot lately about President Biden's nomin­a­tion of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a legal mile­stone for Black women. I completely concur. But her time spent as a public defender makes this appointment another milestone for bring­ing greater diversity of life exper­i­ence to the bench.

According to the Center for American Progress, prior to Biden's presidency, approximately 1% of federal appellate judges had spent most of their careers in roles as public defenders or legal aid attorneys. Traditionally, the fastest way to the bench was through a prosecutor's office. This is true across the board, from trial judges on the state level all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court where seven of the nine justices have some kind of prosecutorial experience. Although just 3 percent of practicing lawyers are prosecutors, they made up about 41 percent of President Barack Obama's appeals court nominees, and 33 percent of President Donald Trump's.