Tales of the 9th Circuit

Circuit Executives Celebrate 50^th Anniversary of Office - Part II recounts some tales of the 9th Circuit:

Cathy Catterson grew professionally as the circuit executive office matured. She started work at the Ninth Circuit as a deputy clerk in 1979, was appointed clerk in 1985 and, at age 33 and as a female, that was “kind of a big deal,” she said. “But I was a known quantity and, I’d like to think, had earned the respect of staff and judges.” She was appointed circuit and court of appeals executive in 2007, a spot she held until she retired in 2017, after almost 40 years in the judiciary.

Catterson said the work of OCE is hidden to most judges and judiciary employees, “because those folks’ duties and functions revolve around the mission of the court – to decide cases. CE’s offices are a support function; to assist the courts in accomplishing that mission effectively. “I think those who are exposed directly to and get involved in circuit activities have a better understanding of the role of the CE’s office,” she said.

The Ninth Circuit has suffered under emergency situations before. Catterson’s emergency was the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in Northern California which “presented numerous challenges,” she said. “That was well before the time of electronic filing, though we did have an electronic docket at the time, thankfully, so at least we could try and track cases, somewhat.” Among her most memorable moments of that disaster was “watching the red tag being tacked on the front door of what is now the James R. Browning United States Courthouse. We were out of that building for seven years.”

The ensuing challenges included “setting up a temporary courtroom in the Hastings Law School student resident building with the smell of washers and dryers permeating the air,” and “having our court offices split over six buildings in the Civic Center area, with my own office above Carl’s Junior for two years, and the file room in an old ballroom across the street where a large snake had made his home,” Catterson said. The building was fully retrofitted with state-of-the-art earthquake resistant features and re-opened in 1997.

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Elizabeth A. “Libby” Smith, circuit executive of the Ninth Circuit, has been in her role for four years. She holds a master’s degree in business information technology and was appointed circuit executive in early 2017, following an eight-year stint as clerk of court for the District of Idaho.

Like most, if not all, circuit executives, Smith had deep experience in the courts prior to taking the circuit executive role. She assumed the clerk post in Idaho in 2009, served as the chief deputy clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from 2006 to 2009 and was the deputy court administrator for the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court from 1999 to 2006. Prior to that, Smith held administrative posts in both federal and state courts in her native Michigan.

Smith’s contributions to the federal judiciary were recognized in 2016, when she was selected as one of three recipients of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ Director’s Award for Outstanding Leadership, the highest honor for judicial branch employees.

All her experience made transiting to her current role easy. “It was extremely helpful having been with the Circuit as a district and bankruptcy clerk,” Smith said. “Having relationships with all of the chief district judges, chief bankruptcy judges and clerks, most of the probation and pretrial services chiefs, the chief circuit judge and others, sure helped me to hit the ground running.”

The breadth of Smith’s contacts illustrates the importance of interpersonal relations in the circuit executive role. “Molly (Dwyer, clerk of the court, Ninth Circuit) and I share a very close relationship and I would say that we co-lead from an administrative standpoint,” said Smith, “with Molly having the inward facing work as the clerk for the largest court in the country, and me with the outward facing for all courts within the circuit, including the court of appeals.”

Those relationships extend upwards, as well. “High on the coolness factor is being able to work with our circuit justices,” the U.S. Supreme Court justice that liaises with each court, said Smith. She has a photo of herself between retired Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, who is now the circuit’s justice. “Additionally, twice a year the circuit executives, chief circuit judges, district judge representatives to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. (JCUS), and chairs of the JCUS committees are invited to a reception at the U.S. Supreme Court (and) I have met and spoken with nearly all the justices during these occasions or at other events.”

The Ninth Circuit is the largest circuit geographically and in terms of the number of cases handled. One element of the Ninth Circuit stands out in comparison to other circuits. “The Ninth Circuit has four Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) courts, two being territorial courts in a time zone which is 17 hours ahead,” said Smith.

The circuit manages the Department of the Interior grant that funds the support and training of judges, justices, clerks of court and others within the Pacific Islands, said Smith. That district includes American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the former Trust Territories of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. Palau is over 9,000 miles from the U.S. No other circuit oversees such distant judiciaries.

Like all of her peers, Smith said the best part of her job is “all of the wonderful people I get to work with within the circuit, across the nation, and at the Administrative Office. That includes our stakeholders and partners in other agencies, the bar and others.”

Smith manages one of, if not the biggest OCE staff in the country, with 44 employees. “Our staff support the nearly 500 judges, 61 courthouses and 43 other facilities, 39 chief judges at district level and over 60 court unit executives, within the circuit,” said Smith. “I sometimes refer to the relationships between the courts and the circuit as being ‘extended court family.’”

The professionalism of individuals is critical to the whole. “Many of our staff have court or AO experience with the state or federal courts and/or specialized experience, e.g., architects, project managers, IT professionals, HR and finance professionals, lawyers, paralegals, trainers and others,” said Smith. “I describe our role as being “consultants” for the judges, CUEs and others within the Circuit.”

“Through our conferences, committees, working groups, programs and training opportunities, judges and staff at all levels have an opportunity for their voice to be heard. A few of the disparate programs and committees that come to mind include the 2015 Corrections Summit, which brought federal and state corrections officers together for the first time; the Jury Trial Improvement Committee, the IT Committee, the Committee on Workplace Relations and the Ninth Circuit Fairness Committee.”

Like her peers, Smith thrives on the complexity and variety of her responsibilities. “This is the most challenging and fulfilling position I will likely ever hold. I get to fulfill my personal credo which is to strive each day to be my best self, so that I might be of service to others,” she said. “That fulfillment comes from a combination of where I am in my professional career – hopefully at the top of my game, being able to serve in this executive role for an institution with such an incredible history, brilliant jurists, leaders and employees, and every day being presented with new challenges and opportunities. I am so very fortunate for infinite reasons,” Smith said.