National Center for State Courts President Larry L. Sipes is retiring and going home to his native California to be a house-husband.
“I’ve been surprised at people being surprised. Some board members were quite skeptical” about his stated reason, said Sipes, who is 58.
But it’s the truth, he said Friday. He said he has no immediate plans other than to “inflict” himself on his children.
Meanwhile his wife Dale will become the breadwinner. She has accepted a job as manager of research for the California Judicial Council. And the family is in the process of moving back to the San Francisco area, where they still own a house.
The board of directors is still evaluating three contenders for Sipes’ position and is expected to make a decision next week.
“The position of president is an extraordinarily exciting position, and I’ve been honored to have it. But it’s also very demanding,” he said.
He’s spent more than half of his five-year tenure out of town on business, he estimated, and has become a virtual stranger to his 13-year-old daughter, Laurel, and 11-year-old son, Todd. He also has two grown children from a previous marriage.
“You can never make up for lost time,” Sipes said. “But I would like to balance it before my kids are off to college.”
Also, his wife, Dale, has put her career on the back-burner while they’ve been here and wanted to go back to work full-time, Sipes said.
Like her husband, she is a lawyer who specializes in court administration, a field that offered her few opportunities locally outside the National Center for State Courts. It wouldn’t have been appropriate for her to work there while he was president, Sipes said.
Sipes said one of his major accomplishments was helping the National Center for State Courts weather the recession of a few years ago, which threatened its survival.
The institution is a quasi-governmental non-profit corporation that depends on federal grants, contributions from state courts and consulting fees. It provides research and education to help state court systems run more efficiently.
Those are the courts the average person deals with – when he or she files for divorce, has a custody dispute or becomes a victim of crime – so improvements in their administration can have a major impact on people’s lives, Sipes said.
“It’s never going to be a good experience to be involved in a lawsuit,” he said. But there are ways “to make justice better for folks.”
By studying patterns and causes of court delays, for example, the National Center has been able to suggest techniques for overcoming the problems, Sipes said. “So folks don’t have these long-drawn out ordeals.”
