Probate Court Judge Gary R. Cassavechia led a delegation from New Hampshire to northwestern Russia in November to participate in a conference that was organized as part of the Russian American Rule of Law Consortium, a US/Russian partnership program focused on discussion of legal reforms. Along with Cassavechia, the delegation included former Belknap County Superior Court clerk Dana Zucker, a longtime member of the Judicial Conduct Commission; Judicial Branch Communications Director Laura Kiernan; assistant federal public defender Bjorn Lange and Annmarie Timmins, a veteran reporter for the Concord Monitor newspaper who participated with Kiernan in a day long program on courts and media.

			Read Annmarie Timmins' stories about her role in the RAROLC visit to northwest Russia: A World Apart and What the Guidebooks and Lore Don't Tell You. Reprinted in e-Court connections with permission from the Concord Monitor.

New Hampshire has had a partnership since 1998 with the legal community in Vologda, a city of about 290,000 residents located about 250 miles northeast of Moscow. Under the leadership of Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire, volunteers from the New Hampshire legal community, including several judges, have traveled to Vologda over the years to participate in programs on a wide variety of topics selected by the Russian hosts including judicial ethics and training, jury trials, court technology, and domestic violence prevention. Court personnel in Vologda organized the November conference which was attended by judges, lawyers, prosecutors and law students from around the Volodga region. As part of the November program, Kiernan and Timmins also traveled two hours further northwest from Vologda to the large industrial city of Cherepovets, where they met with a judge, court officials and journalists to talk about courts and the media and visited a local court and newspaper production office.

The New Hampshire delegation to Vologda:(l-r) Former Belknap County Superior Court clerk Dana Zucker, a longtime member of the Judicial Conduct Commission; Dana's wife Patricia Clauss who accompanied the delegation; Judge Gary Cassavechia; assistant federal defender Bjorn Lange; Judicial Branch Communications Director Laura Kiernan;and Concord Monitor court reporter Annmarie Timmins.

The RAROLC partnership programs, which are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, evolved in the late 1980s and early 1990s as legal reforms were introduced to the new Russian federation following the end of the Soviet Union. The program was initiated in Vermont and since then partnerships have developed between Russian regions and several states including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Connecticut. RAROLC also has a partnership with the Open World Leadership Conference at the Library of Congress which regularly brings court professionals, including judges and lawyers, to the United States to participate in programs hosted by the local legal community and courts.

Judge Cassavechia in Moscow before boarding an overnight train headed northwest to Vologda, the site of the RAROLC seminars.

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