Overview
Ohio Revised Code Section 105.91 sets forth our purpose:
- To study the co-ordination of the work of the several courts of Ohio,
- To encourage uniformity in the application of the law, rules, and practice throughout the state and within each division of the courts as an integral part of the judicial system of the state;
- To promote an exchange of experience and suggestions respecting the operation of the judicial system; and
- To consider the business and problems pertaining to the administration of justice and to make recommendations for its improvement.
Formation
In 1958, Judge Robert L. McBride circulated a report entitled Judicial Organization and the Bar. This report pointed out the need for a state-wide judicial organization consisting of all Ohio judges. Three reasons for a "judicial conference" were set forth:
- The then-existing judges' organizations were organized along jurisdictional lines,
- The judiciary was "submerged" by the organized voice of the bar, and
- There was no single agency in which all judges could participate to improve the administration of justice.
The report suggested that all judges could combine efforts to improve the judiciary from within the judicial branch and by recommending legislative change where needed. Ohio judges met in 1959 and unanimously passed a resolution to organize a Judicial Conference having an Executive Committee consisting of the Chief Justice and two judges from each of the different subject matter jurisdictions. The following year, a second meeting was held, and the judges adopted a constitution.
In May 1963, the General Assembly enacted R.C. 105.91, creating the Ohio Judicial Conference as a statutory entity, separate from the Supreme Court of Ohio, within the judicial branch of government, essentially as it is today. The Judicial Conference consists of all Ohio judges and representatives of the six judicial associations. In October 1994, the General Assembly passed a statute (R.C. 105.911) enabling the Ohio Judicial Conference to research and prepare judicial impact statements on legislation that affects the administration of justice in Ohio.
Chief Justice Kingsley A. Taft, Supreme Court of Ohio, in an address delivered to Ohio judges on May 16, 1963, set forth the challenge for Ohio judges:
I feel certain that, if all of us who are judges will take an affirmative interest and pride in having a Judicial Conference, no matter how slight that affirmative interest and pride may be, those judges who are willing and anxious to devote their time and effort to the activities of a Judicial Conference will be encouraged to do so and the resulting product of their time and effort will not only bring honor and help to all of us as Ohio Judges but will substantially improve the administration of justice in Ohio.
Since 1963 Ohio judges have accepted the challenge and have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to working with other Ohio judges to make improvements in our courts and the administration of justice. More than 200 judges work on Judicial Conference Committees. The Judicial Conference needs every Ohio judge to be involved.
Judge David A. Hejmanowski
Chair
Delaware Co. Probate/Juvenile Co
Judge David Hejmanowski has been the judge of the Delaware County Probate/Juvenile Court since 2015 and previously served as a Magistrate and Court Administrator of that court from 2003-2015. He was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Delaware County from 1999-2003. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Hiram College in 1996 and his Juris Doctor from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 1999 where he graduated as a Public Service Fellow and received the Joseph M. Harter Memorial Award for trial advocacy.
Judge Hejmanowski has been recognized as a leader in judicial organizations and education in Ohio and throughout the nation. He has chaired the Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Language Services, the Board of the Ohio Judicial College, and the High Court’s Juvenile Diversion Task Force. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio State Bar Association, chaired the OSBA’s Juvenile Law Committee, and is currently the chair of the Association’s Content Advisory Board. In 2023, he was President of the Ohio State Bar Foundation.
At the national level, he has been a member of the board of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, and chaired the board of the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh. In his more than 25 year career, he has made more than 200 educational presentations for judges, magistrates and court employees throughout Ohio and in more than a dozen states. He has written a weekly newspaper column on the law and history for more than two decades and taught for Ohio Wesleyan University’s Lifelong Learning Institute.
In his own community, Judge Hejmanowski has led the boards of the Central Ohio Symphony, the Arena Fair Theater Company, the Strand Theater, and the Delaware County Historical Society. He is active in community theater, having acted in nearly two dozen productions in the past decade, has composed music for organ, choir, piano, and orchestra, and is a frequent play-by-play broadcaster for baseball and hockey games. The father of two adult children, he and his wife reside in Delaware.
Justice Paul Pfeifer
Ohio Judicial Conference Executive Director
Retired
Retired Justice Paul Pfeifer grew up on his family's dairy farm near Bucyrus and still resides just down the road. His first job after graduating from The Ohio State University School of Law was as an assistant attorney general trying eminent-domain cases associated with the building of Ohio's highway system. Traveling the state gave him an appreciation for Ohio's county courthouses, architectural jewels that are the crossroads of life in our towns and cities.
In 1972, Retired Justice Pfeifer became a partner in the law firm of Cory, Brown & Pfeifer, where he practiced — primarily as a trial and tax lawyer — for 20 years. He also served several years as an assistant county prosecutor. Retired Justice Pfeifer served in both houses of the Ohio General Assembly, including one term in the House of Representatives and four terms in the Senate. He held a variety of leadership posts in the Senate, and served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 10 years. His proudest legislative accomplishment was crafting the legislation creating the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority.
Retired Justice Pfeifer was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1992. Upon retirement from the Supreme Court, he became the Executive Director of the Ohio Judicial Conference in January of 2017.