Ernie Friesen, the true founder of modern judicial administration

 

 

Ernest Clare Friesen, Jr., who died in December [2025] at the age of 97, was more responsible than anyone else for the successful start and growth of judicial administration in the U.S. He was an amazing, imaginative, and yes, brilliant leader, teacher, and innovator. He held almost every top job in the field, having been the first director of the Institute for Court Management and the National Judicial College. 

 

He had been Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and Assistant Attorney General for Administration in the U.S. Department of Justice before that. Later on, he was dean of two law schools. He co-wrote the first major text, Managing the Courts, and was a valued and sought-after consultant for decades. Ernie, above all, was a delightful guy to work with, learn from, and just spend time absorbing his knowledge, experience, and energy.

 

He was one of the only stars in the field who could walk into any judge’s chambers or court and be welcomed based on his presence as well as the reputation he had acquired. I experienced that when we worked on a project to reduce criminal case processing time in the major Chicago criminal court. He introduced us as we interviewed a lot of judges: “Between us, Mr. Hoffman and I have been in just about every major metropolitan court in America.” 

 

Ernie was a Kansan and could present that kind of statement with the aplomb of actor Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard in the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. I recall my late colleague, Bob Tobin, remarking that Ernie was the speaker you needed when you wanted to rouse everyone in the audience to go out into the streets and shout for court reform.” 

 

I last saw Ernie in Colorado when I persuaded a friend with whom we were staying in Breckenridge to invite Erne and his wife Corley to dinner with all of us. Ernie was as fascinating as always—he was only in his 80s then—and left everyone there amazed at his command of the role of courts and what needed to be done to make them work right. 

 

His court management principles were short and clear: Always have a definite next date for action on any case. Use "short scheduling," i.e.,  if a lawyer asks for a 30 or 60-day continuance, give him 15 or 20. Set a cutoff date for pleas. In his various positions, he probably directly or indirectly caused more judges and court administrators to aim for significant improvement in how courts processed cases and how long they took to do it. 

 

I also was with him when we both travelled to North Conway, New Hampshire, for Maury Geiger’s funeral. Maury always had brought a splash of humor to the often not so funny field of court and justice system management. He also believed in serving ordinary people—court users—and had worked on many projects with Ernie. Maury told me once that when he was driving Ernie in San Diego—locale of one of the law schools he was dean and got accredited—he asked Ernie what the biggest problem, the greatest obstacle was to getting the courts operating effectively or running right. 

 

Without missing a beat, Ernie replied with a twinkle, “the goddamn fucking judges.”