Lubitz is ready to lead: new State Courts Administrator is up to speed.

Filling the shoes of former State Courts Administrator Ken Palmer, who died last April after a battle with cancer, is not an enviable task. Palmer was one of the longest-serving state administrators in the nation, was responsible for innovative programs that helped keep Florida's judicial system a model for the rest of the country, and he was respected and admired by the state's entire judicial system.

But, Robin Lubitz hopes he's up for the task.

Lubitz began work this January as the new State Courts Administrator, and he's looking toward the future. After visits to circuits across the state, Lubitz is quickly learning the ropes.

"I'm very pleased that Rob has taken substantial initiative in reviewing the work of the office of court administration, and in his efforts to go around the state and meet our judges," said Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Wells. "The work of the office of court administration is essential to the administration of the trial courts, and I think Rob is off to a wonderful start in building relationships with trial judges."

Lubitz's excitement is rooted in a reverence of the system.

"In my opinion, Florida's court system is one of, if not the premier court system in the country," he said. "Those in Florida probably do not realize what a great reputation it has outside, nationally. I know when I was in North Carolina, when we looked for ways to improve our system, for example, to improve our court education program, to implement family court, to put in performance accountability standards, or to provide more access to pro se litigants, we continually ended up looking at Florida. It's been at the forefront, I think, of excellence and innovation."

Lubitz doesn't grant that kind of praise lightly. Having worked in the court systems of both Pennsylvania, which was a totally decentralized system, and North Carolina, in which almost all budgeting and decision-making is done through a central organization, Lubitz has experience in a wide range of court operations. He hopes his experience in such vastly different systems will help him handle Florida's hybrid mix.

"I've been involved in the courts one way or another my entire career," he said, "but I didn't move up purely through the court administration ladder."

His first foray into the courts system came through his work as a court programs analyst in Philadelphia. Then, in the late 1970s, he was hired as the associate director of the Pennsylvania Sentencing...