Federal Judge Stephen Friot talks about Russian-American judicial exchanges under the Open World Program.

The news of the death of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens in an airplane crash in August of 2010 came as a shock to many people in the United States and around the world. Throughout his 4-decade-long career in the U.S. Senate, Ted Stevens sought to improve Russian-American relations in many ways. In the years of the Cold War, Senator Steven often traveled to the Soviet Union and frequently supported political initiatives to get the two superpowers to work together in a variety of fields. In late 1990s, Senator Stevens initiated the Open World program in an effort to enhance Russian-American political and business cooperation. The program brought more than 12 000 young political, economic, and civic leaders of former U.S.S.R. countries to the United States. A major component of the Open World Program is judicial exchange. Russian-American Business editor talked to one of the active participants of the Open World Program Federal Judge Stephen Friot of the Western District of Oklahoma. 

- Judge Friot, the legal profession is considered to be one of the oldest trades. At the same time, one does not become a lawyer by accident. At what point in your life did you realize that you wanted to work in the legal field? What led you to pursue the study of law?

- I became interested in the legal profession probably a little later than most individuals would. When I was an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma, I met the father of one of my fraternity brothers. He was a lawyer who practiced in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When we went to Santa Fe for a Thanksgiving break, he brought me along, and I watched what I know now was a very routine court proceeding. I was very impressed. A little later, in the summer of my sophomore year, I was an intern in Congressman Henry Smith’s office. He had been a successful lawyer and then a state court judge. I was tremendously impressed with Congressman Smith – his sense of right and wrong and his political courage. This experience fortified my desire to become a lawyer. So it was not until well into my undergraduate years that I made that decision. I applied to OU Law School in the fall of my senior year and was fortunate enough to be accepted. It was those exemplars that inspired me to seek a legal education.

- What has been your professional background before entering the federal judiciary?

- My resume is pretty short. I was with one law firm for 29 years from the day I graduated from law school until the day President Bush appointed me to the bench. It was a law firm in Oklahoma City. My practice was entirely a civil practice. It centered on business litigation, for the most part. But there was a wide variety of business litigation. The only exception to that area of work was that I also had a very substantial practice in the field of aviation, representing aircraft manufacturers and engine manufacturers in air crash litigation.

I was one of those rare appointees to the federal bench who had not previously been employed in public service. I was an unpaid member of the Board of Trustees of the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency and, certainly, I have been involved in community activities. But I had not had any public employment.  

- Sometimes people say that lawyers are by definition not internationally-oriented. The legal systems are specific to a particular country, and many laws in the U.S. are different from state to state. How did you become involved in international cooperation with Russia? When did you first find out about the Open World Program?

- I owe that entirely to Judge Robert Henry – in both instances. Robert Henry was the Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, now he is the President of the Oklahoma City University. He opened my eyes to the opportunities as a judge to become involved in international judicial relations and contacts with the representatives of the legal profession in Russia. It was Judge Henry who introduced me to the Open World Program.

In early 2006, Judge Henry contacted me and inquired whether I would be interested in hosting an Open World delegation in Oklahoma City. After hearing Judge Henry’s very persuasive comments, I agreed to do that. This entire new chapter of my professional life was opened by Robert Henry, and I am very much in his debt for doing that.

- How many delegations from Russia have you hosted in Oklahoma? 

- I have hosted three Open World delegations. I am scheduled in March of 2011 to host my fourth. 

- The Open World Program is remarkable in that it unites both the formal approach of state-level government visits with the people-to-people style of diplomacy. At the same time, critics of people-to-people exchanges in Russia point out that Russian officials and government leaders should not be visiting other countries and then blindly imitating foreign practices in their home country. Many Americans involved in the Open World Program say – to the contrary – that they have as much to learn from the Russian guests as the visiting officials have to learn about the United States. What, in your view, is the greatest practical benefit of this program?

- It is one thing to identify a practical benefit and another to have a benefit that can be measured. I will be the first to acknowledge that the benefits are very difficult to measure, but I believe that they are very real. The benefits go both ways. I have learned valuable things from my Russian judicial counterparts, and this affects to some degree the way I do things. My Russian counterparts are required to do more with fewer resources. I think that this is a fairly good generalization. That makes me appreciate the resources that I have at my disposal to carry out my judicial duties.

My Russian counterparts operate under rules that require the prompt disposition of some categories of cases, for instance employment cases, that, I think, we should emulate to the extent possible in our work.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said – and I think very appropriately – that in the field of international judicial relations we Americans have as much to learn as we do to teach.

The benefit that flows the other way can be best described by my Russian counterparts. As I see it, at least at the high level of generalization, the benefit that flows the other way is that our work at the regional level (which I think very much is the grassroots level) has the effect of strengthening the constituency at the grassroots level in the Russian Federation for the rule of law. Strengthening the political will for a robust and transparent judicial system at the grassroots level would then inevitably have beneficial effects at higher levels.

I do not profess to be an expert on the Russian political system, or on the dynamics of that system, but I am convinced that strengthening the constituency for the rule of law at the grassroots level can only have beneficial effects.

- Do Russian judicial delegates begin to perceive the fundamental principles of American jurisprudence (i.e. jury trials) differently as their trip progresses? 

- My Russian counterparts frequently have some skepticism about the jury system and some skepticism about the reinstitution of the right of jury trials in Russia. I think one thing that they come away with from their Open World visits is a more thorough understanding of how the jury system can be made to work and work well. The American experience helps lessen their concerns about the reliability of results produced by jury verdicts. One fairly tangible, though again not measurable, effect is to give my Russian judicial counterparts a better confidence level in the jury trial mechanism for serious criminal cases within their own system. It also lessens concerns about the efficacy of the Russian judicial system as it relates to jury trials.   

- You helped bring Oklahoma into the Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium. What are the goals of that organization?

- The Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium was founded in Vermont in the early to mid-1990s. I learned about the organization in late 2006. I drafted the application for Oklahoma to join that organization as a partner jurisdiction. We successfully accomplished that goal in 2008. The Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium as a grantee of USAID functions as a mirror image counterpart to Open World. The Open World Program, also publically funded, brings Russian legal professionals, lawyers and judges, to the United States. Under the USAID-funded program that is implemented by the Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium, U.S. judges, lawyers, and court administrators go to Russia. This more or less closes the circle in terms of the quality of judicial exchanges between the two countries. The Russian-American Rule of Law Consortium’s programs very much complement the Open World Program.     

- Judge, you have traveled across Russia, visiting Oklahoma City’s sister city of Ulyanovsk, as well as many other places. You have seen how people in the same profession live and work in a different country under a completely different legal regime. What similarities have you found in what Russian and American judges and lawyers do on daily basis?

- I’ve been to Ulyanovsk; I’ve been to Pskov, Vologda, Nizhniy Novgorod and Petrozavodsk, as well as Moscow. I can say that the problems that our Russian counterparts deal with day-to-day are in many ways similar to the problems that we deal with day-to-day. At the judicial level, we contend with what we consider to be a heavy caseload. The caseload in Russian courts is higher, and in many cases significantly higher than in comparable courts in the United States. We also have in common the problem of public cynicism about the judicial system. We have public cynicism about the judicial system in the United States, and my Russian counterparts deal with the same issues in Russia. I think that the contacts we have with each other are helpful in improving our ability to deal with and counter the public cynicism about the judicial system. There are also some similarities in bench-bar relations. In this area we also have a fruitful subject for dialogue between U.S. judges and Russian judges. The judicial profession and the practicing lawyers relate to each other a little differently in Russia than they do in the U.S. But my Russian colleagues have been quite interested to learn how the different elements of the legal profession relate to each other in the United States.

- What is your favorite city in Russia?

- That is a hard question. Every Russian city I have been to is absolutely fascinating in part because of the history of that city and in part because of the history of the Russian people as it relates to those localities. My appreciation for the Russian cities I have been to is heightened by my admittedly limited understanding of Russian history. I discovered after my first one or two trips to Russia that I will not understand that country and its people unless I gain an understanding of several hundred years of Russian history. So I have tried to accomplish that. With some understanding of Russian history, I must say that some of the most fascinating cities I have been to were Pskov and Nizhniy Novgorod. Every city that I have been to is fascinating in its own way.

- The introduction of political reforms and changes to various legal mechanisms in Russia is intended to create a better and a more equitable system for the future. In your opinion, how will the Russian legal, political, and social systems develop in the years to come?

- I am convinced that the Russian people not only have a future, they have a destiny. And there is a difference. The destiny of the Russian people will be an extension of their incomparable history, if the Russian people will develop the political will to perpetuate a thriving democracy with transparent public institutions with support of civil society organizations and support for political competition. I think the Russian people have all of the human capital and intellectual capital that is necessary to bring about those results. It is a privilege for me to play a tiny, tiny role in the international exchanges that may be useful for bringing about those results.