The 2013 symposium was inspired by an article by Judge William Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and New England Law Professor Jordan Singer, which proposes “bench presence”—the number of hours a trial judge spends adjudicating issues in the open courtroom—as a critical component of a trial court’s overall productivity. These articles served as a springboard to a broader discussion on the propriety and mechanics of evaluating both courts as institutions and individual judges as public servants.
Featured panelists included:
Former Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis, Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver
Malia Reddick, Director of the Quality Judges Institute at the IAALS
Professor Mark Spottswood of Florida State University College of Law
Professor Carolyn Dubay of Charlotte School of Law Dean Steven Gensler of Oklahoma University College of Law Professor Linda Mullenix of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law Professor Chad Oldfather of Marquette University Law School
Chief Justice Paula M. Carey ’86 of the Massachusetts Trial Court
Robert Farrell, Clerk of the Court for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Sara Jane Shanahan, Partner at Sherin and Lodgen
Jonathan M. Albano, Managing Partner at Bingham McCutchen, LLP
Listen to our interview with Professor Singer of New England Law | Boston providing some insight into the topics discussed at the symposium here.
Below are links to the two articles that inspired the event and served as the cornerstone of our dialogue.