WEBINAR: Nurturing Innovation as a Court Leader

This webinar was held on February 19, 2026.

Leadership plays an integral role in driving innovation within any organization, including trial courts, by setting the tone, creating an experimental culture, and inspiring others to think creatively and take calculated risks. Inventive leaders also provide a clear vision and purpose that motivate teams to approach problems in imaginative, insightful ways while enhancing the very purposes of courts. So, how do such leaders do it? How do they, and the teams they lead, work as catalysts to transform the status quo and move their organizations into exciting, new transformative territories?

This 75-minute webinar will explore and dissect two of the most innovative changes generated by internal trial court leadership teams that changed the way their court functioned, served customers, and eventually spread new approaches throughout the national community of courts. These case studies from the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County involved two innovations: (a} restructuring jury trials to let jurors take notes, use notebooks, ask questions, and privately discuss evidence during trials; and (b} creating the first court-annexed DIY center for self­represented litigants involved in general jurisdiction cases in the U.S.

These advances checked all the boxes that scholars and researchers have identified regarding the knowledge and skills needed by leaders to spark innovation, overcome judicial and legal barriers, and sustain changes over time when those who spearheaded them are no longer in leadership roles. (A common problem faced by many judicial leaders whose tenures as chief presiding or administrative judges are only 2 – 5 years}. As a viewer, you will learn how to inspire trust, embrace an innovative mindset, and foster a long-lasting collaborative culture from those who have lived it.

Facilitator

  • Gordon Griller, NAPCO Board Member 
    Former Minnesota / Arizona Trial Court Executive and NCSC Consultant 

Panelists

  • Hon. Barry Schneider (ret.)
    Maricopa County Superior Court
  • Danielle Kalil, Director of Civil Justice and the Judiciary
    Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System
  • Robert “Bob” James, Deputy Court Administrator
    Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County

Video

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