The Federal Judicial Center

The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the federal judicial system. It was established by Congress in 1967 (28 U.S.C. §§ 620-629), on the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. The many specific statutory duties of the Center and its Board fall into a few broad categories:

• conducting and promoting orientation and continuing education and training for federal judges, court employees, and others;
• developing recommendations about the operation and study of the federal courts;
• conducting and promoting research on federal judicial procedures, court operations, and history.

By statute, the Chief Justice of the United States chairs the Center's Board, which also includes the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and seven judges elected by the Judicial Conference. The Board appoints the Center's director and deputy director; the director appoints the Center's staff. Since its founding in 1967, the Center has had nine directors. Judge Barbara J. Rothstein became director in 2003. She was appointed U.S. district judge for the Western District of Washington in 1980 but has been resident in Washington, D.C., since becoming director. The deputy director is Russell R. Wheeler.

The Director's Office is responsible for the Center's overall management and its relations with other organizations. Its Systems Innovation & Development Office provides technical support for Center education and research. Communications Policy & Design edits, produces, and distributes all Center print and electronic publications, operates the Federal Judicial Television Network, and through the Information Services Office maintains a specialized library collection of materials on judicial administration.

The Court Education Division develops and administers education and training programs and services for nonjudicial court personnel, such as those in clerks' offices and probation and pretrial services offices, and management training programs for court teams of judges and managers.

The Judicial Education Division develops and administers education programs and services for judges, career court attorneys, and federal defender office personnel. These include orientation seminars, continuing education programs, and special-focus workshops.

The Research Division undertakes empirical and exploratory research on federal judicial processes, court management, and sentencing and its consequences, often at the request of the Judicial Conference and its committees, the courts themselves, or other groups in the federal system.

The Federal Judicial History Office develops programs relating to the history of the judicial branch and assists courts with their own judicial history programs.

The Interjudicial Affairs Office caries out the Center's statutory mission to provide information about federal courts to officials of foreign judicial systems and to acquire information about foreign judicial sysstems that will help the Center perform its other missions.

The Center makes many of its publications available on the Web.

The Board of the Center

The Chief Justice of the United States, Chair

Judge Pierre N. Leval, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Judge Pauline Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Judge Robert J. Bryan, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

Chief Judge James A. Parker, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico

Judge Sarah S. Vance, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

Chief Judge Robert F. Hershner, Jr., U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Georgia

Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Leonidas Ralph Mecham, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (ex officio)

Senior Staff of the Federal Judicial Center

Barbara J. Rothstein, Director of the Federal Judicial Center since 2003, B.A. Cornell University, L.L.B. Harvard Law School

Russell R. Wheeler, Deputy Director of the Federal Judicial Center since 1991, B.A. Augustana College; Ph.D. University of Chicago.

Ted E. Coleman, Chief, Systems Innovation & Development Office since 1997, B.S. Northwest Missouri State University.

John S. Cooke, Director, Judicial Education Division since 1998, B.A. Carleton College; J.D. University of Southern California; L.L.M., University of Virginia.

James B. Eaglin, Director, Research Division since 1997, B.A. Grambling University; J.D. State University of New York at Buffalo.

Mira Gur-Arie, Attorney in charge of the Interjudicial Affairs Office since 2000, B.A. Cornell University; J.D. New York University.

Emily Z. Huebner, Director, Court Education Division since 1995, B.A., M.Ed. Goucher College.

Bruce A. Ragsdale, Chief, Federal Judicial History Office since 1995, B.A., Ph.D. University of Virginia.

Sylvan A. Sobel, Director, Communications Policy & Design Office since 1990, B.A. Georgetown University; J.D. University of Wisconsin.