Bill Suter and the Courts press corps

In any courthouse in the nation, a news reporters professional success is assured or frustrated depending upon the reporters dealings with the courts clerk and the clerks staff. The flow of the courts business is managed well or poorly, depending upon the clerks office, and the work of the press corps is as much affected by that as are the efforts of the lawyers and the interests of the public with cases before the court.

Bill Suters tenure as the Supreme Courts Clerk has proved those observations over and over: Bill has understood the needs and the desires of the press corps and has used his considerable energies to help satisfy both, while keeping his primary focus on ensuring that the Courts judicial business was conducted at a high level of administrative efficiency. The transparency of the Courts work something vital to those covering it journalistically is now at its peak, and a good deal of the credit for that is due to Bill.

Just as importantly, Bill has been as good humored as he has been accessible to the news reporters, and his informal visits to the Courts press room have helped maintain a superb working relationship, and have made him a personal friend to many. Even the exchanges with him on political and other non-legal issues have been mutually enjoyable, even when it was obvious that we were not convincing each other to embrace our sometimes differing perceptions.

In an institution that often is said to be resistant to doing things in new ways, Bill found ways to modernize the flow of work and bring its operation fully into the digital age. The press, too, was a beneficiary of these efforts: when the Justices agreed upon new working arrangements for the press corps, Bill was a creative ally to the Public Information Office in bringing those about smoothly.

From the press section in the Courtroom, reporters have watched Bill as the cordial greeter to countless attorneys joining the Bar, making them even though strangers to the Court feel genuinely that they had become a part of the Court family.

With Bill’s parting, the press corps will look hopefully to the new Clerk, Scott Harris, to keep up the informal visits to the press room. We will, of course, cut Scott some slack, until he has a chance to learn that thepress is never satisfied.