Welcome from the Honorable Emily C. Hewitt, Chief Judge

Welcome from the Honorable Emily C. Hewitt, Chief Judge

It is my pleasure and honor as Chief Judge to welcome you to our website and to our court.

The Court of Federal Claims is fortunate to have the support of a distinguished Advisory Council and an exemplary Bar Association, and I enjoy working with both organizations on issues and events important to the court. I encourage members of the court’s bar to join and to participate in the United States Court of Federal Claims Bar Association as a way to become more familiar with the court, members of the bench, and with your colleagues in the bar.

The Court of Federal Claims Bar Association is instrumental in sponsoring two of the court’s signature annual events. The first is Law Day, which we celebrated this past year on Tuesday May 1, 2012. We were honored to have as our Law Day speaker Linda Greenhouse of Yale Law School, who served for thirty years as Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times. Ms. Greenhouse spoke on the American Bar Association’s chosen theme, "No Courts, No Justice, No Freedom."

The second event is the court’s annual judicial conference. The 25th Annual Judicial Conference was held on November 15, 2012, with activities at the court and across Lafayette Square in the historic Decatur House. The Conference program featured a wide variety of panels addressing issues in the major areas of the court’s jurisdiction and featured distinguished speakers including Circuit Judges William Bryson, S. Jay Plager, Kathleen O’Malley, Jimmie Reyna, and Evan Wallach of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Thomas Barthold, Chief of Staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, Professor Eugene Fidell, Yale Law School, and many judges of our court. In addition, a full program of concurrent sessions was offered by the Special Masters of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

This year, Law Day will be celebrated on May 8, 2013, with a luncheon at the Willard Hotel. The theme for Law Day 2013 is "Realizing the Dream: Equality for All." We are delighted to welcome as our 2013 Law Day Speaker the Honorable Ann C. Williams, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Registration for this year’s Law Day luncheon will begin in March. Please visit the Bar Association website, www.cfcbar.org, for more information.

Registration for the 26th Annual Judicial Conference, to be held on Thursday, October 17, 2013, in Washington, DC, will open this summer. You may also visit the Bar Association’s website for more information about this event.

From time to time, I will update this greeting to keep you apprised of recent and upcoming events. Thank you for your interest in the United States Court of Federal Claims.