Federal Judicial Center

The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. An Act of Congress (28 U.S.C. § 620: 629) started it in 1967. The idea for a center came from the Judicial Conference of the United States.

The Center main activities are:

• orientation and continuing education and training for federal judges, court employees, and others;
• recommendations about the operation and study of the federal courts; and
• research on federal judicial procedures, court operations, and history.

The law sets who serves on the Center's Board of Directors. The Chief Justice of the United States is ex officio chair of the Center's board. The board also has the director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and seven judges elected by the Judicial Conference. The Board appoints the Center's director and deputy director; the director appoints the Center's staff. Since its founding in 1967, the Center has had ten directors. Judge Jeremy Fogel became director in 2011. He was appointed U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California in 1998 but has been resident in Washington, D.C., since becoming director. The deputy director is John S. Cooke.