[4] Born to a family of shopkeepers,[7] Baroche received his baccalauréat in 1820 and pursued a legal education, becoming a lawyer in 1823.

[8] He became moderately well-known and somewhat notorious as a lawyer, particularly in his pleadings before the Cours des pairs (Court of Peers).

Baroche ran for office unsuccessfully in Seine-et-Oise in 1840, 1842 and 1846, finally winning a National Assembly seat in Charente-Inférieure in 1847.

After 1848, however, he became associated with right wing politics and particularly with the purge of leftist and royalist judges from the French courts and with the defense of the many press censorship laws passed as the republic became increasingly authoritarian.

[10] Following liberal reforms in 1860, Napoleon III appointed Baroche to a ministry without portfolio, while he was still president of the Conseil d'État, in order to shore up his support in parliament.