Gov. Maura Healey’s pick for the state’s highest court will get her first job as a judge, after the Governor’s Council unanimously approved her appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court.

State Solicitor Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar, 43, received the support of the eight-member council after a December hearing on her nomination, in which they questioned the fact she has never worn a judge’s robes and openly wondered at the wisdom of appointing someone so young to a role requiring broad knowledge of the state’s complex legal codes.

The council also noted that, if and when Dewar joins the SJC, she will be able to spend nearly 27 years shaping Massachusetts law before she reaches the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70.

Despite those concerns, members of the council were very impressed with the breadth of her remarkable legal career.

“She has been involved in every type of law,” Councilor Marilyn Devaney said. “I was never so impressed with anyone.”

Dewar clerked at all three levels of the federal judiciary, including at one point for former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. She’s also worked as an appellate and trial lawyer and as a civil rights advocate.

Dewar joined then Attorney General Healey’s office as State Solicitor in 2016, where she advises the AG’s staff on when to appeal court decisions and when to file amicus briefs, doing much of her work with and before the SJC.

Dewar was confirmed by a vote of 7-0, with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll acting ex officio. The normally nine-member body is absent a District-2 councilor.

With the council’s approval the soon-to-be SJC Associate Justice needs to be sworn in by the governor, and for her predecessor, Association Justice Elspeth Cypher, to retire. Elspeth, who like her six other high-court colleagues was appointed by former Gov. Charlie Baker, is scheduled to step down at the end of the week and will take a position at Boston College Law School.

“I’m thrilled that the Governor’s Council unanimously confirmed Bessie Dewar’s nomination. She’s an experienced attorney and a consensus builder who will make an excellent Supreme Judicial Court Justice. We look forward to swearing her in soon,” Healey said in a statement.

Dewar is not the first person to join the state’s highest court without first serving on a lower bench. Former Associate Justice Robert Cordy was nominated by Republican Gov. Bill Weld and confirmed in 2001, after serving as a federal prosecutor and advisor to the governor but never as a judge. Cordy retired from the court in 2016.

Dewar, a Jamaica Plain resident and mother of two, is a graduate of Harvard University, Yale Law, and Cambridge College.

Herald wire services contributed.