The National Association for Court Management (NACM) recently launched the Court Leader's Advantage podcast. The subject of the inaugural broadcast, titled What Hurricane Florence Can Teach Us, was the impact of Hurricane Florence on North Carolina courts. Featured guests included Cumberland County Trial Court Administrator Ellen Hancox and Trial Court Coordinator Caitlin Emmons for Judicial District 4 including Duplin, Jones, Onslow, and Sampson counties.

Last September, Hurricane Florence devastated North Carolina’s families, its communities, and its courts located in affected areas. There had to be “contingency plans for contingency plans” in order to deal with a storm that upended lives and work. In the podcast, Hancox and Emmons talk about how their courts and their families endured, and how their continuity of operations plans (COOP) held up in the face of flooded facilities and judges who had not yet fully recovered from the previous hurricane (Matthew). They both share good advice for all of us from their experience.

Court Leader's Advantage provides another avenue for NACM to inform court professionals about important innovations and trends of interest to the court community. Court Leader's Advantage, hosted by Peter Kiefer, also provides a forum for court professionals to share their experiences and lessons learned. Episodes will cover a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, leadership, ethics, social media, access to justice, and many more.

Episodes will air the third Thursday of each month. Please email comments, questions, and suggestions for future topics to clapodcast@nacmnet.org.