2025 Annual Meeting – High-Volume Civil Adjudication Program

David Freeman Engstrom is the LSVF Professor in Law and Co-Director of the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, the premier academic center working to shape the future of legal services and access to the legal system. A far-ranging scholar of the design and implementation of litigation and regulatory regimes, Engstrom’s expertise encompasses civil procedure, complex litigation, administrative law, constitutional law, legal ethics, law and technology, and empirical legal studies.

Nathan L. Hecht is the retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas after 36 years' service,  the longest in the Court's  history. He led the Court’s efforts to assure that Texans living below the poverty level, as well as others with limited means have access to basic civil legal services.  He also oversaw revisions to the rules of administration, practice, and procedure in Texas courts and  served on the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States.  Hecht earlier served on the Texas Court of Appeals and the District Court in Dallas. Before taking the bench, he was a partner in the law firm of Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely in Dallas; a law clerk for Roger Robb, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit; and a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps.

Carolyn Kuhl is Assistant Supervising Judge of the Complex Litigation Division of the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. She served as presiding judge from 2015 to 2016.  From 1981 to 1986, Judge Kuhl served in the U.S. Department of Justice. She served as Deputy Solicitor General, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and as Special Assistant to Attorney General William French Smith. From 1986 to 1995, she was a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Her practice focused on civil business litigation in both federal and state courts with a specialty in appellate litigation. In 1995, she became a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.

Erika Rickard directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ work on safety and justice court initiatives. She oversees researchers, policy experts, and organizational partnerships that support Pew’s work on safety and justice, including efforts to identify, interpret, and explain the role of court administration in key policy areas that affect people’s lives.