The most important people you have never heard of, starting with Deni Butler

What is the correct metaphor? Iceberg does the trick--massive on the surface yet 90% not observable. The Los Angeles Superior Court is indeed massive: 4,922 employees; one billion dollar annual budget; nearly 600 judicial officers; 36 courthouses; 1.2 million annual filings. The observable portion is familiar territory to most users: courtrooms, judicial officers, courtroom staff, and clerical staff at filing windows.

But what about the 90% most of us never see? What does the Management Research Unit do? Who are the court's lawyers? What do they do? How does the court, a major employer, handle hiring, career development, labor relations and other HR matters? What about the sine qua non of all things 21st century--technology including case management systems and other web applications? Then there's revenue management, facilities and capital projects, intergovernmental relations, juror services.

Who makes these--and five hundred other things--run each day? The judges? Nope; when it comes to the nuts and bolts of actually operating this institution, that is not our lane. The court's Executive Officer and Clerk of Court, David Slayton, is in charge of the behemoth. Following an intensive national search, Mr. Slayton took the reins as of Dec. 31, 2022 from long-time CEO/Clerk Sherri Carter following her retirement. Mr. Slayton's leadership bona fides, resume and fulsome experience (senior executive at the National Center for State Courts; Administrative Director of the Texas Office of Court Administration; Executive Director of the Texas Judicial Council) make a great story to tell. But not today.

This column (and several to follow) focuses instead on the departmental chiefs charged with the day-to-day running of the eight administrative units of our court, namely, Court Technology Services; Finance and Administration; Human Resources; Judicial and Executive Support; Legal Services; Operations; Research and Data Management, and Communications. Who are these people? What is their background and experience? How does their particularized work contribute to the common mission of the LA Superior Court?

Today we start with Operations, the most visible part of the court. Operations is the unit providing courtroom support and juror services for the court's five principal divisions: Criminal and Traffic, Civil, Family Law, Probate and Mental Health, and Juvenile Justice and Dependency. Easily said; far less easily done. Within that glib description are herculean tasks including: staffing more than 550 courtrooms (Judicial Assistants, Court Attendants, court reporters, language interpreters); operating the Judicial Assistant training program (a six month course); operating clerk's offices and filing windows in three dozen courthouses; administering the jury service program in ten-million-person Los Angeles County (2.3 million juror summonses mailed each year); administering the court's appellate operations; operating the Training and Support Unit (training, testing and trouble-shooting for the operations portions of the new case management systems and e-filing); staffing and operating Self-Help centers in 13 courthouses and on-line (152,000 Self-Help contacts in 2022); running the Records, Archives and Exhibits unit (responsible for policy and procedure concerning maintenance and destruction of millions of case records and exhibits); training staff on remote appearance technology; operating our massive (and increasingly mandatory) e-filing systems; staffing call centers handling 250,000 calls per month; piloting online dispute resolution programs for family law and civil. And on and on it goes.

Sitting atop of all this is the person to whom I now introduce to you: Deni Butler, Chief Deputy of Operations. You think you have busy days? Let's hear from Deni.

Q: Deni, how would you explain court Operations in a 15 second elevator ride?

A: I can do it in 10. Court Ops is the meat and potatoes of what the court does. Most basically, we support the judicial officers so they can adjudicate cases. Other units of the court, such as HR, Admin, Facilities and Finance also provide critical support but in a less direct and obvious manner. My job is to keep all the plates spinning so we have the resources and procedures in place to support the nearly 600 judicial officers who come to work every day.

Q: Have any plates ever come crashing down?

A: We've had to sweep up a tea cup or two over the years, but we have a remarkable track record for consistency and predictability of operations, I think. Counsel and parties find that their cases are on calendar, their papers in the right file, and when they show up, or log in on our remote appearance platform, the judicial officer and staff in the department are ready to go. And when the hearing is over, there is a timely minute order in the file. That's Ops!

Q: Deni, you have quite a job. What does your CV look like?

A: (Laughs.) I've worked for the LA Superior Court for the last 40 years so I don't actually have a current CV. I started out as a JA assigned to civil in Mosk, then went to juvenile in Long Beach and criminal in Pomona. I became a Court Manager after about seven years as a JA. I had a couple of promotions along the way and then came court unification in 2000, which was a very big deal and a very big change for us all. I became the Senior Administrator in the East District with responsibility for the Pomona courthouses, West Covina and El Monte. In 2010, I was promoted to Deputy Executive Officer over all District operations. And in 2014, I was promoted to Chief Deputy of Operations, my current title, which includes all the District Operations in all litigation areas, Clerical staff, Self-help, Jury, Appeals, Appellate , Court Reporters, Interpreters, Judicial Assistants and Family Court Services.

Q: Anything else you do professionally you haven't mentioned?

A: I am a member of the Judicial Council Digital Evidence Workstream and am a court representative on the County Justice Metric Frameworks Committee.

Q: Don't take this the wrong way but that all sounds very yawn-worthy and bureaucratic. What does it mean?

A: Well, it means at least two things. As to the first, it is the Judicial Council of California's coordinated effort to promote the "digital court." It is all about the historic move from paper to digital, and my efforts have focused on digital evidence acceptance, storage and retention. As to the second, it means that the CEO of the County of Los Angeles has led the development of a project using data from justice, health, and homelessness services to estimate outcomes for individuals from vulnerable populations who were involved in the County of Los Angeles's justice system. The common denominator is the use of data to optimize performance. Very important stuff and I assure you, not yawn-worthy.

Q: Soon, if all goes well, our court--the biggest in the land--will be weaned off of paper filings and for the most part operating in an efiling environment. You have been around for a while. How big a deal has efiling been for court operations?

A: As big as it gets. Working in an electronic environment has brought us so many efficiencies. It has also brought its challenges and requires a new way of thinking, both within the court and in the community. It used to be that court staff knew how much work they had because it was sitting as paper on their desk. Managers and supervisors could do the same. We've all had to learn how to manage and do our work differently. We also have had to work with the bar and the public, not all of whom initially embraced the new electronic world. Many of them, like me, remember blue-backed pleadings. Our general experience is that the public loves the electronic filing milieu and could never see turning back to a paper world. We feel the same way.

Q: The Clerk of Court is not a judge and a judge is not the Clerk of Court. Yet some Ops issues and procedures clearly have cross-over consequences. How does everybody stay in their lane and what happens when they don't?

A: The main thing is communication and coordination among the judges and the Ops professionals. For example, I attend three critical meetings every month. First, the "Ops" meeting, which is also attended by the Supervising Judges of the five disciplines, the PJ, the APJ, the CEO, and the other chief deputies. We really focus on court operations initiatives and challenges. Second, the Supervising Judges' meeting, which is attended by all the discipline SJs (e.g., the SJ of civil) and all the district SJs (e.g., the SJ of East District), the PJ, the APJ, the CEO and the other chief deputies. This is a pretty big group with geographic representation from the court's 12 separate districts. This is a chance for those of us in administration to listen to what the judges' are experiencing. Third, the Executive Committee, which is composed of 18 judge representatives from the 12 districts elected by their peers and at which meeting the PJ, APJ, CEO and the chief deputies also attend. This is another important means to hear from our judicial colleagues and them from us. So there is a lot of opportunity for exchange of ideas. Yes, we stay in our lanes but the more the judges know about the administrative operations of the court, and the more the administrators know about the challenges judges face, the better the outcome for everyone.

Q: What career advice would you have for brand new Judicial Assistant trainees who confide to you that they aspire one day to be the Clerk of Court?

A: Learn everything you can about all aspects and departments of the court. Move around; take varying assignments both geographically and in terms of subject matter. The fact is that all the parts of this huge enterprise interact and have to work in harmony. Knowing more will help you to make better decisions and give better input along the way. And take some risks--get out of your comfort zone. Consider the experience of our current CEO, Mr. Slayton. He started out in the basement of a clerk's office filing court documents. He just continually said "yes" to new challenges and now he's the CEO of the largest court in the nation.

Q: Last words?

A: We are always on the hunt for better ways. I am amazed sometimes when I think about how far we've come in my 40 years on the job. There are always new and exciting things in the pipeline. That is why I love this job.