Fellows Alumni

Jarrett B. Perlow

The Vice President of ICM presents the Award of Merit for Applied Research to the ICM Fellows Program graduate who completes the most outstanding court improvement project in each graduating class. Jarrett B. Perlow, Circuit Executive and Clerk of Court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, is the 52^nd Class recipient. Kathleen Shambaugh, Retired Chief Deputy of Operations, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, provided guidance to Mr. Perlow as his project advisor.

Mr. Perlow’s paper on “Preserving the Public Trust: A Quality Management Framework for Federal Appellate Court Operations” explored the usage of quality management systems and data collection to improve the effectiveness of federal courts and enhance public confidence in the courts. He proposes ISO 9001 and ASQ/ANSI G1 standards as tools federal courts can use to address variations in case processing times and provide transparency to the public.

Mr. Perlow identified the benefits of utilizing quality management systems, which include providing a framework for the evaluation and improvement of current service levels, as well as being able to document the efficiency and effectiveness of service while improving overall public trust in the judiciary as an institution.

Mr. Perlow’s recommendations from his research are that an operational model scorecard and baseline performance targets based on case processing intervals would improve operations and encourage public confidence in the federal judiciary.

Jarrett B. Perlow is the Circuit Executive and Clerk of Court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  He previously served as the court’s Chief Deputy Clerk and in other legal and managerial positions within the federal judiciary over the past two decades.  

Under his tenure at the Federal Circuit, both he and the Clerk’s Office received numerous recognitions for work in enhancing court operations, including the federal judiciary’s Director’s Award for Excellence in Court Operations, the national W. Edwards Deming Outstanding Training Award, and silver-level validation under the national ASQ/ANSI G1:2021 Guidelines for Evaluating the Quality of Government Operations and Services. Based on his work at the Federal Circuit, he was selected to complete a six-month residency at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to develop and implement a nationwide federal court process improvement program, which launches in the fall of 2023.  

Mr. Perlow holds certifications as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.  He is also a Senior Member and Chair of the Center for Quality Standards in Government with the American Society for Quality. He has presented at local and national programs about court operations, process improvement, and quality management, including at the annual conferences for the National Association for Court Management, the Federal Court Clerks Association, the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks, and the American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement.

Mr. Perlow received his law degree with honors from the American University Washington College of Law, where he was Editor in Chief of the Administrative Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History from American University.  He previously served on the adjunct law faculty of American University and the executive education faculty of the Federal Judicial Center.

James N. Bauer

Class Spokesperson is chosen by their classmates to represent them at graduation. The 52^nd class chose James N. Bauer, Deputy Court Administrator for the 15^th District Court in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The text of his speech follows.

Congratulations to the 52^nd class of ICM Fellows. Allow me to do some boasting and bragging about our class.

Over the last 52 years, there have been likely tens of thousands of court administrators. But there have only been about 1300 ICM Fellows. Many started and did not finish. And many, many, more never started. They were perhaps intimidated by the amount of work that was required or the fact that a presentation in front of a panel of nationally recognized court leaders was required. We were not intimidated by these things. Or, if we were, we succeeded despite it. Or maybe others didn’t see enough reward and saw more risk. We saw more rewards. We saw not only an opportunity to further our skills, but we saw an opportunity to meet, get to know, and work with other very dedicated and motivated court administrators from across the country.

We have persevered for the past several years to achieve CCM and CCE and are now ICM Fellows.  I am so very proud of everyone here.

I watched some of our presentations and was just so impressed by our final products. The presentations were so creative and interesting to view. Some of the topics included collections, employee satisfaction, the court user experience, facilities, court culture, technology, and court governance. The 52^nd class showed both breadth and depth of topics.

So now, looking back over all this work and crossing the finish line here today - how do we feel? I asked all of you, via email, and I received some very consistent responses.

We are proud of ourselves and each other.

We are relieved that we finished the project.

We are inspired by our achievements.

We are grateful that we have had this opportunity.

We have overcome a real challenge.

We have learned the skills to implement positive change in our courts.

We believe that this experience has changed our careers for the better.

We learned that you must keep moving forward to achieve your goal.

We are now looking for more challenges!!

What do we do now? Here are a few ideas:

We continue to have tremendous influence over the culture and mission of our courts. Mary McQueen said in one of our sessions that court administrators must be “Dynamic and Persuasive.”

We continue to be dynamic and persuasive as leaders of our courts.

We continue to be courageous and innovative as we face constant challenges.

We also continue to be efficient, organized, and empathetic to our teams, our Judges, and our patrons.

We use our new designation as ICM Fellow to mentor other administrators and those who aspire to be administrators and impact the administration of justice in other courts. Jarrett has already done this by presenting at the annual conference. It is a tremendous opportunity, and I suggest that we all take advantage of it.

Let me make a few comments about the importance of our profession. I want to focus on three things – purpose, function, and legacy.

We have a very simple purpose – helping our team and our Judges serve the public. We get to help people every day get through what is likely a difficult time. Or we get to help Judges or juries make very important decisions that will have a lasting impact on people.

What about our function? We are an integral part of what makes our democracy work – an independent judiciary. Not very long ago, a Presidential election was contested, and lawsuits were filed across the country. Judges, appointed by the person contesting the election, asked to see the evidence.  Case after case was dismissed, and our democracy, perhaps a bit bruised and battered, remained. Without court administrators and court clerks and many other court employees, those Judges would not be able to administer justice in an effective manner. Last, but perhaps most important, what about our legacy?

My mentor, Judge Allen Nelson once compared the legacy of Trial Court Judgesagainst that of court administrators. He said that a Trial Judge’s influence ends with the Judge’s last case. On the other hand, court administrators may have implemented changes to the court culture, advanced the use of technology, or established policies that carry on well after the court administrator has retired. So, in this sense, court administrators impact the court’s mission much longer than the trial judge.

For all of us, this has been a very challenging year.  I want to thank all of you because I looked forward to our Zoom meetings and our limited time together. Meeting many of you personally this weekend has been one of the highlights of my 24 years working on the courts.

On behalf of the 52^nd ICM Fellows Class, I want to thank both J.D. and Mandy for getting us through this process. Thank you for your encouragement, your calm demeanor, your sense of humor, and your careful guidance. Obviously, we could not have done this without you. Thank you to all the advisors, lecturers, and panel members who worked with us individually and as a group.

Thank you to all the family members, friends, colleagues, and others who have supported us, listened to us, read our papers, and helped all of us through this process. We could not have done this without you.

To close I want to quote one of the most well-known Supreme Court Justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“Greatness is not in where we stand but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Thank you.

James Bauer is the Deputy Court Administrator for the 15^th District Court in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jim began his career in the courts in 1999 as law clerk to Judge Allen Nelson, Chief Judge for the Genesee County Probate Court in Flint, MI. He then served as the Court Administrator for the Genesee County Probate Court for fifteen years and worked as Trial Court Executive for the 3^rd and 4^th District Juvenile Courts in Utah for 5 years. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Thomas M. Cooley Law School.