 Hodge became a Recorder in 1993, and a Circuit Judge in October 1999, when he retired from his firm.He was appointed Chief Immigration Adjudicator in 2001, by Derry Irvine then the Lord Chancellor.On 1 October 2004, he became the third Solicitor to sit as a High Court judge in England and Wales, after Sir Michael Sachs (appointed in 1993) and Sir Lawrence Collins (appointed in 2000).