In order to assist Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in his nonjudicial responsibilities, Congress in 1972 created the position of administrative assistant to the chief justice. With the assistance of a small staff, the administrative assistant carries out the tasks assigned by the chief justice. These usually include recruiting new staff and officers of the Court, conducting research for speeches and publications by the chief justice, and generally solving problems involving the Court's staff. The administrative assistant also serves as a liaison between the chief justice and other institutions and organizations, including the Congress, the executive branch, state courts, research centers, bar associations, law schools, and private associations, and assists the chief justice in carrying out his or her responsibilities to the Judicial Conference, the Federal Judicial Center, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The administrative assistant also serves as the executive director of the Supreme Court Fellows Program, which was created in 1973 to provide mid‐career professionals an opportunity to work for a year in the federal judiciary at the Federal Judicial Center, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the United States Sentencing Commission, or the Supreme Court.
Occupants of the Office of Administrative Assistant have been Mark W. Cannon, a political economist and public administrator; Noel J. Augustyn, an official of the Association of American Law Schools; Lawrence H. Averill, Jr., a law school dean; Robb M. Jones, a litigator with an interest in communications; Harvey Rishikof, a Supreme Court fellow; James C. Duff, a Washington, D.C., lawyer; and Sally M. Rider, an assistant U.S. attorney.
— Mark W. Cannon
