Since September 1996, Sheindlin has presided over her own successful 4-time Daytime Emmy Award–winning arbitration-based court show series, Judge Judy, produced by CBS Television Distribution.Sheindlin passed the New York state bar examination in 1965 and became a prosecutor in the family court system.
In 1982 New York City Mayor Ed Koch appointed her as a judge, first in criminal court, then later as Manhattan's supervising family court judge in 1986.
Sheindlin is the longest serving judge or arbitrator in courtroom-themed programming history, a distinction that earned Sheindlin a place in the Guinness World Records.