By Zenell B. Brown
All rise because here comes the judge. Correction: Here comes the judges! Two hundred judges in fact. Two hundred women judges representing 20 countries were in attendance when the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) held its 44th annual conference in Detroit at the Book Cadillac Hotel.
NAWJ President Elizabeth White opened the conference, “All Rise: Standing Up for Global Justice in the City that Moved the World!”
Co-chaired by Hon. Michelle Rick of the Michigan Court of Appeals and Zenell B. Brown from the Third Circuit Court, the conference was filled with education, entertainment, and sisterhood of networking. Every aspect of the Michigan legal community was represented in the planning and execution of the conference. Judge Denise Page Hood, the former chief judge of the U.S. Eastern District Court, and Hon. Megan Cavanagh and Hon. Justice Welch of the Michigan Supreme Court served on the planning team and were in attendance along with sister judges and lawyers from all over the state.
The speakers and programming were the heart of the conference, and the presenters did not disappoint. The roster included Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocent Project; former Detroit mayor Hon. Dennis Archer; U. S. Attorney Dawn Isom; and many other international, national, and local attorneys and speakers.
The programming began on Oct. 18 with the arrival of judges from 19 different countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Lebanon. The judges were hosted by University of Detroit in the atrium by Judge Denise Langford Morris, Dean Jefferson Exum, and NAWJ District Chair Judge Mariam Perry. The international contingency visited the local district, circuit, and federal courthouses. Judges from the Maldives led a panel and afternoon tea allowed all the judges to become better acquainted. It was not surprising that the attendees, no matter where they lived or had come from, they found they had something in common with others.
Waawiyatanong, the land the colonists renamed Detroit, is the ancestral and contemporary homeland to three Anishinaabe nations of the Council of Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi. Therefore, it was center for Native American history in the conference as well. Hon. Allie Greenleaf Maldonado, chief judge for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, included her welcome in the program. The conference opened with a tribal land acknowledgement and a tribal dance performance. A session on Thursday covered the history of Indian Boarding Schools, the Indian Children Welfare Act (ICWA), and Canada’s path to reconciliation.
Throughout the conference, representatives from the courts, law schools, firms, and bar associations volunteered. Law students had an opportunity to attend an evening with the judges in the Planting the Seed Program. Incoming NAWJ President, Judge Toni Clarke oversaw the program that was sponsored by the Detroit Bar Association (DBA). The Barristers’ president, Essence Patterson, encouraged the students from various law schools to join the DBA and share in the ongoing Barristers’ activities.
One of the most heartfelt moments for the Michigan legal community was the awarding of the Lady Justice Award to the late Hon. Karen Fort Hood.
“Our sister, Judge Karen Fort Hood epitomized all that Lady Justice represented,” Judge Langford Morris shared in her remarks. All of the members of the Black Judges Association surrounded and hugged Judge Fort Hood’s sister on stage as she received the award.
The saying goes that there is nothing like a Detroit party. The NAWJ Party with A Purpose and Gala confirmed that is the truth. Attorney Syeda Davidson and a team of aerialists provided ambient entertainment. Judge Sara Smolenski proved that law school does not remove your funny bone. And the Detroit Youth Choir energized and electrified the audience, stealing the heart of everyone within hearing range.
Motown Museum, the DIA, the Charles Wright Museum, variety of local eateries, and local vendors offered attendees multiple opportunities to further partake in all the city of Detroit has to offer. Nothing this big and fantastic happens without team work and sponsors, and although space does not allow for them to be all listed by names in this article, their individual collective efforts moved the hearts of the judges and delivered a conference focused on global justice.
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Zenell Brown is the Wayne County Circuit Court administrator.
