Judicature at Ten: Growth, Gratitude, and the Work Ahead

This year we celebrate Judicature’s 10th anniversary and remarkable growth at Duke Law School. I well remember our first publication. I was in Duke’s Master of Judicial Studies (MJS) program and one of the “staff” assigned to work on articles for the print journal and new website. Ten years later, Judicature and its online newsletter, Judicature International, reach nearly 250,000 readers online and in print each year with relevant, practical, and engaging articles about judging and the administration of justice.

This success is a tribute to the leadership of the journals’ advisory boards and the talent and dedication of our (now professional) editorial team. I thank David Ichel (a Duke Law graduate and chair of the Bolch Judicial Institute’s advisory board); Judge Don Willett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (a three-time Duke graduate); and U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, the new director of the Federal Judicial Center (also a Duke Law graduate), who have chaired the Judicature advisory board so skillfully, and Justice David Collins of the New Zealand Court of Appeal (a fellow Duke MJS graduate), who has chaired the Judicature International advisory board. These volunteers, as well as many donors and supporters (read about Ichel’s transformational gift to Judicature on page 9) and wonderful readers like you, have made Judicature the force and influence it is today.

As I step down as director of the Bolch Judicial Institute, I am reflecting on the many milestones of the past three years. We launched the Defending the Judiciary project to meet increasing challenges to judicial independence and the rule of law; a civics program to improve public understanding of the role of the judiciary in preserving our founding principles; the Trauma-Informed Courts Program to help courts better serve communities; and judicial education programs in the U.S. and around the globe on topics such as AI in court, judicial independence, law and history, and much more.

These accomplishments also are the result of the contributions and hard work of many wonderful people: Carl and Susan Bolch; Duke Law Dean Kerry Abrams; many Duke Law faculty; the Bolch Institute’s Advisory Board, including founding chair Peter Kahn; our Leadership Council; and our amazing staff. My successor, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of the Eastern District of California (also a Duke Law MJS graduate — do you sense a theme?), has a wonderful team to call upon as she builds upon these successes, which I know she will do with wisdom, purpose, and great energy.

In his 2022 final publisher’s note for Judicature, our founding director — Dean David Levi — wrote: “[W]hen facing the unrelenting threats — some big and obvious, some small and insidious — to the rule of law and an independent judiciary, it will be the strong culture of the judiciary and the support of our citizens that will see us through. Or not. There are no guarantees of success in this struggle. It must constantly be renewed, in every generation.” Judicature and the Bolch Judicial Institute have been — and will remain — at the forefront of this struggle. It has been the privilege of my lifetime to play a part.

Paul W. Grimm is the David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law and Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.