A study was conducted to determine why judges voluntarily choose to participate in continuing judicial education programs, and to identify relationships between the factors and selected personal and professional characteristics of judges. Two instruments measuring participation reasons and personal characteristics were developed, validated, and mailed to all Michigan Trial Court judges (523), with responses received from 400 judges (76.5 percent). The respondents corresponded to the population sample in terms of representative characteristics, such as age, professional credentials, and so on. Three participation factors emerged as most meaningful: professional perspective, judicial competence, and collegial interaction. Correlations were found between these three participation reasons and several judicial characteristics. For example, sex of the judges was found to correlate with judicial competence, with female judges placing higher value on this reason than did male judges. The number of years since the judges received their law degrees was found to correlate with professional perspective (factors related to development of a professional identity as a judge). Another correlation was found between length of time on the bench and judicial competence. Implications of the research can be used by judicial educators to target their advertising to the motivations of the judges they seek to serve, taking into account the correlations between personal characteristics and participation factors. (KC)