Hon. Timothy Connors
Reflection comes from the Latin word introspicere, which means “to look within.” It has been requested, that I share my reflections, from the bench. Thank you. I will do my best to honor this request.
We have all experienced the clamor of a courtroom. It should come as no surprise that courtrooms are cacophonous. Courtrooms are the place, where chaos has a space, to be corralled and calmed.
Our courtrooms are time machines. In each case, the past is resurrected into the present, for legal reflection and response. In each case, the future hovers. The required recordings of our proceedings constitute the fodder for appellate review. Past, present and future coincide in the moment. While the past is recorded in the present, the present has already become past. And, it is in the quiet of that space that we reflect.
It has been said: “For what is in a word, but a sound? What is in a thought, but a quickening of the mind’s eye?” So what do we do in that moment? Do we dismember as we remember? Or do we rebuild and renew? The choice is ours. Where might we find common ground in consideration of that choice? Perhaps in the contract that we all share: The Lawyer’s Oath, required for admission to the Michigan State Bar.
Each of us have our individual moment when we solemnly affirmed that oath. Depending on the circumstances, some of those experiences might be more memorable than others. For me it was profound. My parents were still alive and sat in the jury box as witnesses. I was the first in our large and extended family to become a lawyer. I felt their pride in and hope for me as I became a member of our profession. I was sponsored into the Bar by future Judge Richard Conlin, who I was in private practice with at the time. His brother, Chief Judge Patrick Conlin, father of our current Chief Judge Patrick Conlin, Jr., administered the oath. It was in the same courtroom where I now serve as a judge.
Each time I perform this ceremony, I remember the moment of my own swearing-in as if it was yesterday. I see myself behind that podium where the young attorneys today stand. I see my parents in the proud families, sitting as witnesses in the jury box. I remember the kindness of Judge Conlin as I sit in the chair he sat in when he swore me in. Each and every time the ceremony repeats, I am acutely aware of the significance our courtrooms have on the human experience. The past is present, the present past, and we send our prayers and hopes into the future with each and every lawyer we admit into our bar.
Our Lawyer’s Oath is our contract. We make solemn promises in exchange for “the privilege to practice law in this state.” Those solemn promises represent the contract we make within ourselves, between ourselves as members of the profession, and to the public we individually and collectively serve. We are architects of society. As architects we have the responsibility to continuously ask ourselves certain questions. Among them are the following: What do we contribute that has value?
What have we built that deserves protection and preservation? What shelter do we provide from storms of chaos, conflict and discord that often time comes our way? What we do matters. We must never forget that.
In my courtroom, Courtroom 10, our Oath, our contract, hangs framed on the back wall of the courtroom. Beneath it is a brass plaque with one of the grandfather teachings, shared with our court by our Anishinaabe neighbors. It is the teaching of Humility.
There are twelve federally recognized Anishinaabe tribes in Michigan. The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, the tribe closest to our Washtenaw courts in geographic proximity, shares the grandfather teaching of Humility with the public as follows:
“Humility is to know that we are a part of creation. We must always consider ourselves equal to one another. We should never think of ourselves as being better or worse than anyone else. Humility comes in many forms. This includes compassion, calmness, meekness, gentleness and patience. We must reflect on how we want to present ourselves to those around us. We must be aware of the balance and equality with all of life including humans, plants and animals.”
I encourage you to reflect upon our Oath further. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the other grandfather teachings: Respect; Love; Bravery; Wisdom; Honesty and Truth. I encourage you to reflect on the teachings of your ancestors. In reflecting on our common Oath, I invite you to notice how values articulated in teachings are part of our contract. Like Humility, these values are strengths, not weaknesses. They guide us in our work, and in our life walk.
The public we serve shares in this work and life walk as well. When prospective jurors sit in the back of Courtroom 10, beneath the framed Lawyer’s Oath, the very first instruction they are given states in pertinent part:
“Jury duty is one of the most serious duties that members of a free society are asked to perform. The right to a jury trial is an ancient tradition and part of our heritage. Our system of self-government could not exist without it. As jurors your sole duty is to find the truth and do justice…”
Their final instruction, before they deliberate, reaffirms:
“When you go to the jury room, your deliberations should be conducted in a serious and respectful manner. It is important that all ideas are voiced and considered during deliberations.”
In closing, I cite the last stanza of the poem “In the Quiet of an Empty Courtroom”:
In the quiet of this space
The past is present, the present past.
What we nurture in each case
Reverberates. To the last.
Síochána (Peace, in Irish)
Timothy Connors
Judge, Washtenaw County Trial Court
Judge Timothy P. Connors has been a State Court Judge since 1991. For eleven of those years he served as a Chief Judge. Judge Connors is the Presiding Judge for the Peacemaking Court, the Presiding Judge for the Business Court and handles civil and ICWA cases. He is a past co-chair, and current member of the Michigan Tribal-State-Federal Forum. Judge Connors has also served by appointment as Judge Pro Tem for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
The Native American Rights Fund appointed Judge Connors to its Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative in 2017. The mission of this initiative is to support efforts of tribes and their allies to utilize traditional native methods of dispute resolution whenever those methods might afford desirable outcomes. Judge Connors is incorporating Peacemaking principles, philosophies and procedures shared by Tribal communities into State Court justice systems. This effort is supported by the Michigan Supreme Court. Cases identified as potential beneficiaries of Peacemaking are those where the litigants have ongoing relationships after the court’s adjudication is complete. In addition, cases where litigants need a more complete understanding of and closure to the conflict that brought them into court are also potential beneficiaries of Peacemaking. To date, successful outcomes of Peacemaking efforts have been witnessed in wrongful death suits, elder guardianship disputes, estate distribution issues, custody and parenting time disputes, neglect and abuse proceedings, juvenile domestic violence charges, and adult criminal sentencing circles.
Judge Connors co-authored a Law Review article on peacemaking entitled Restructuring American Law Schools: Peacemaking in First Year Curriculum; Wayne Law Review, Vol. 69, No. 3, Spring 2024. He is the author of Rights, Relationships, Responsibilities, American Bar Association Human Rights Journal, July 2023. He is the author of Exit, Pursued By a Bear, Why Peacemaking Makes Sense in State Court Justice Systems; American Bar Association Judges Journal, Fall 2016; Our Children are Sacred, Why the Indian Child Welfare Act Matters; American Bar Association Judges Journal, Spring 2011 and Crow Dogs vs. Spotted Tail: Case Closed?; Michigan Bar Journal, July 2010. He co-authored, TRIBAL COURT PEACEMAKING A Model for the Michigan State Court System? Michigan Bar Journal, June 2015.
Judge Connors has been awarded numerous honors throughout his career. In 2021, Judge Connors received the Daniel J. Wright Lifetime Achievement Award for Exemplary Services to Michigan’s Families and Children. He was awarded the Tecumseh Peacekeeping Award for Dedicated Service to Protecting the Rights of American Indians from the Michigan State Bar Indian Law Section.
He was presented with the Patriot Award for Outstanding Service to the Bench, the Bar, and the Community from the Washtenaw County Bar Association in 2009.
Judge Connors is a three-time recipient of the Justice Blair Moody Award for Significant Contributions to Judicial Excellence. In 2014, Judge Connors was awarded the Child Welfare Jurist of the Year Award by the Foster Care Review Board. He also received the Peace Builder Award on behalf of the Washtenaw County Peacemaking Court from the Dispute Resolution Center. This award was given “in recognition of outstanding commitment to the practice of just and humane resolution of social conflict.”
In 2014, Judge Connors was also elected Chairman of the Board of Eversight, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the restoration of sight.
In addition, in 2014, dbusiness, Detroit’s Premier Business Journal recognized Judge Connors as one of the “top circuit court judges” in Southeast Michigan. This recognition was based on integrity, knowledge of the law, efficiency and judicial temperament.
In 2015, Judge Connors received the Hilda Gage Judicial Excellence Award from the Michigan Judges Association. The award “honors judges who serve their profession and their communities with integrity, skill, and courage every day.”
In 2016, he was the recipient of the Reverend Thomas H. Smith Humanitarian Service Award from the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 2017, the Youth Justice Fund appointed Judge Connors to their inaugural Advisory Board. Their mission is to assist children upon their release from detention in Michigan’s prisons and jails by providing mentoring, training, services, and resources necessary to ensure human dignity and full participation in the community.
Also in 2017, Judge Connors was the recipient of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Innovator of the Year Award for Implementing Tribal Peacemaking Practices in a State Court System – The Washtenaw County Peacemaking Court.
In 2018, Judge Connors received the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Award from the NAACP Ypsilanti Willow Run Branch.
He is also a past member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Tribal Leadership Forum. He is currently a member of the Michigan Judicial Council – Expanding Problem Resolution Approaches Work Group.
Judge Connors teaches Civil Trial Advocacy and/or Peacemaking and Restorative Justice at the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State Law School and Vermont Law School.
We have all experienced the clamor of a courtroom. It should come as no surprise that courtrooms are cacophonous. Courtrooms are the place, where chaos has a space, to be corralled and calmed.
Our courtrooms are time machines. In each case, the past is resurrected into the present, for legal reflection and response. In each case, the future hovers. The required recordings of our proceedings constitute the fodder for appellate review. Past, present and future coincide in the moment. While the past is recorded in the present, the present has already become past. And, it is in the quiet of that space that we reflect.
It has been said: “For what is in a word, but a sound? What is in a thought, but a quickening of the mind’s eye?” So what do we do in that moment? Do we dismember as we remember? Or do we rebuild and renew? The choice is ours. Where might we find common ground in consideration of that choice? Perhaps in the contract that we all share: The Lawyer’s Oath, required for admission to the Michigan State Bar.
Each of us have our individual moment when we solemnly affirmed that oath. Depending on the circumstances, some of those experiences might be more memorable than others. For me it was profound. My parents were still alive and sat in the jury box as witnesses. I was the first in our large and extended family to become a lawyer. I felt their pride in and hope for me as I became a member of our profession. I was sponsored into the Bar by future Judge Richard Conlin, who I was in private practice with at the time. His brother, Chief Judge Patrick Conlin, father of our current Chief Judge Patrick Conlin, Jr., administered the oath. It was in the same courtroom where I now serve as a judge.
Each time I perform this ceremony, I remember the moment of my own swearing-in as if it was yesterday. I see myself behind that podium where the young attorneys today stand. I see my parents in the proud families, sitting as witnesses in the jury box. I remember the kindness of Judge Conlin as I sit in the chair he sat in when he swore me in. Each and every time the ceremony repeats, I am acutely aware of the significance our courtrooms have on the human experience. The past is present, the present past, and we send our prayers and hopes into the future with each and every lawyer we admit into our bar.
Our Lawyer’s Oath is our contract. We make solemn promises in exchange for “the privilege to practice law in this state.” Those solemn promises represent the contract we make within ourselves, between ourselves as members of the profession, and to the public we individually and collectively serve. We are architects of society. As architects we have the responsibility to continuously ask ourselves certain questions. Among them are the following: What do we contribute that has value?
What have we built that deserves protection and preservation? What shelter do we provide from storms of chaos, conflict and discord that often time comes our way? What we do matters. We must never forget that.
In my courtroom, Courtroom 10, our Oath, our contract, hangs framed on the back wall of the courtroom. Beneath it is a brass plaque with one of the grandfather teachings, shared with our court by our Anishinaabe neighbors. It is the teaching of Humility.
There are twelve federally recognized Anishinaabe tribes in Michigan. The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, the tribe closest to our Washtenaw courts in geographic proximity, shares the grandfather teaching of Humility with the public as follows:
“Humility is to know that we are a part of creation. We must always consider ourselves equal to one another. We should never think of ourselves as being better or worse than anyone else. Humility comes in many forms. This includes compassion, calmness, meekness, gentleness and patience. We must reflect on how we want to present ourselves to those around us. We must be aware of the balance and equality with all of life including humans, plants and animals.”
I encourage you to reflect upon our Oath further. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the other grandfather teachings: Respect; Love; Bravery; Wisdom; Honesty and Truth. I encourage you to reflect on the teachings of your ancestors. In reflecting on our common Oath, I invite you to notice how values articulated in teachings are part of our contract. Like Humility, these values are strengths, not weaknesses. They guide us in our work, and in our life walk.
The public we serve shares in this work and life walk as well. When prospective jurors sit in the back of Courtroom 10, beneath the framed Lawyer’s Oath, the very first instruction they are given states in pertinent part:
“Jury duty is one of the most serious duties that members of a free society are asked to perform. The right to a jury trial is an ancient tradition and part of our heritage. Our system of self-government could not exist without it. As jurors your sole duty is to find the truth and do justice…”
Their final instruction, before they deliberate, reaffirms:
“When you go to the jury room, your deliberations should be conducted in a serious and respectful manner. It is important that all ideas are voiced and considered during deliberations.”
In closing, I cite the last stanza of the poem “In the Quiet of an Empty Courtroom”:
In the quiet of this space
The past is present, the present past.
What we nurture in each case
Reverberates. To the last.
Síochána (Peace, in Irish)
Timothy Connors
Judge, Washtenaw County Trial Court
Judge Timothy P. Connors has been a State Court Judge since 1991. For eleven of those years he served as a Chief Judge. Judge Connors is the Presiding Judge for the Peacemaking Court, the Presiding Judge for the Business Court and handles civil and ICWA cases. He is a past co-chair, and current member of the Michigan Tribal-State-Federal Forum. Judge Connors has also served by appointment as Judge Pro Tem for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
The Native American Rights Fund appointed Judge Connors to its Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative in 2017. The mission of this initiative is to support efforts of tribes and their allies to utilize traditional native methods of dispute resolution whenever those methods might afford desirable outcomes. Judge Connors is incorporating Peacemaking principles, philosophies and procedures shared by Tribal communities into State Court justice systems. This effort is supported by the Michigan Supreme Court. Cases identified as potential beneficiaries of Peacemaking are those where the litigants have ongoing relationships after the court’s adjudication is complete. In addition, cases where litigants need a more complete understanding of and closure to the conflict that brought them into court are also potential beneficiaries of Peacemaking. To date, successful outcomes of Peacemaking efforts have been witnessed in wrongful death suits, elder guardianship disputes, estate distribution issues, custody and parenting time disputes, neglect and abuse proceedings, juvenile domestic violence charges, and adult criminal sentencing circles.
Judge Connors co-authored a Law Review article on peacemaking entitled Restructuring American Law Schools: Peacemaking in First Year Curriculum; Wayne Law Review, Vol. 69, No. 3, Spring 2024. He is the author of Rights, Relationships, Responsibilities, American Bar Association Human Rights Journal, July 2023. He is the author of Exit, Pursued By a Bear, Why Peacemaking Makes Sense in State Court Justice Systems; American Bar Association Judges Journal, Fall 2016; Our Children are Sacred, Why the Indian Child Welfare Act Matters; American Bar Association Judges Journal, Spring 2011 and Crow Dogs vs. Spotted Tail: Case Closed?; Michigan Bar Journal, July 2010. He co-authored, TRIBAL COURT PEACEMAKING A Model for the Michigan State Court System? Michigan Bar Journal, June 2015.
Judge Connors has been awarded numerous honors throughout his career. In 2021, Judge Connors received the Daniel J. Wright Lifetime Achievement Award for Exemplary Services to Michigan’s Families and Children. He was awarded the Tecumseh Peacekeeping Award for Dedicated Service to Protecting the Rights of American Indians from the Michigan State Bar Indian Law Section.
He was presented with the Patriot Award for Outstanding Service to the Bench, the Bar, and the Community from the Washtenaw County Bar Association in 2009.
Judge Connors is a three-time recipient of the Justice Blair Moody Award for Significant Contributions to Judicial Excellence. In 2014, Judge Connors was awarded the Child Welfare Jurist of the Year Award by the Foster Care Review Board. He also received the Peace Builder Award on behalf of the Washtenaw County Peacemaking Court from the Dispute Resolution Center. This award was given “in recognition of outstanding commitment to the practice of just and humane resolution of social conflict.”
In 2014, Judge Connors was also elected Chairman of the Board of Eversight, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the restoration of sight.
In addition, in 2014, dbusiness, Detroit’s Premier Business Journal recognized Judge Connors as one of the “top circuit court judges” in Southeast Michigan. This recognition was based on integrity, knowledge of the law, efficiency and judicial temperament.
In 2015, Judge Connors received the Hilda Gage Judicial Excellence Award from the Michigan Judges Association. The award “honors judges who serve their profession and their communities with integrity, skill, and courage every day.”
In 2016, he was the recipient of the Reverend Thomas H. Smith Humanitarian Service Award from the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 2017, the Youth Justice Fund appointed Judge Connors to their inaugural Advisory Board. Their mission is to assist children upon their release from detention in Michigan’s prisons and jails by providing mentoring, training, services, and resources necessary to ensure human dignity and full participation in the community.
Also in 2017, Judge Connors was the recipient of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Innovator of the Year Award for Implementing Tribal Peacemaking Practices in a State Court System – The Washtenaw County Peacemaking Court.
In 2018, Judge Connors received the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Award from the NAACP Ypsilanti Willow Run Branch.
He is also a past member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Tribal Leadership Forum. He is currently a member of the Michigan Judicial Council – Expanding Problem Resolution Approaches Work Group.
Judge Connors teaches Civil Trial Advocacy and/or Peacemaking and Restorative Justice at the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State Law School and Vermont Law School.
