In keynote remarks at the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy symposium on February 6, 2026, Kim Mueller, director of the Bolch Judicial Institute and retired federal judge, shared lessons from the bench about why people, pleadings, and facts matter — and why trial courts remain the foundation of the judiciary.
“What I know best from the cases I decided is the essential role trial courts can play in any number of fraught moments,” Mueller said in the opening of her keynote speech. “Trial courts are where legal theories meet lived reality, and where justice takes shape through the stories of real people.”
Read the full keynote remarks here.