 He built up a lucrative practice and soon established himself as an advocate; his uncle William the judge did everything he could to further his career.In 1918 Andrews took silk (becoming a King's Counsel (KC)); in 1920 he was elected a bencher of King's Inns; and in 1921 he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in the new Supreme Court of Northern Ireland, established under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920.The barrister and memoirist Maurice Healy, who admired both James and his uncle William, thought that on balance James was the better judge, as he did not have his uncle's custom of handing down prison sentences of exceptional severity.