Philadelphia's First Judicial District leadership has selected a judicial system veteran to take over as court administrator after Joseph Evers stepped down in June after more than seven years in that role.

The Philadelphia court's Administrative Governing Board recently chose Richard McSorley to be the FJD's next court administrator.

For the past few months, McSorley, in his role as deputy court administrator for the Criminal Division, has been been heading the district's behind-the-scenes efforts to get the criminal court up and running again after it was shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is set to formally take the reins as the FJD's court administrator in November.

In the interim, Marc Flood, another longtime veteran of the FJD, is serving as the court administrator until McSorley takes over.

The unusual move is being done so that McSorley can stay focused on the critical issue of more fully opening up the city's criminal courts, which have recently begun holding remote preliminary hearings and in-person bench trials.

"That is very helpful to me because of the situation we're in. I'm trying to get the criminal division up and running, and the thought of also taking up the FJD and getting a replacement for me, would just be overwhelming," McSorley said.

Both McSorley and Flood are attorneys.

Flood has been with the court for 40 years, more recently serving as the deputy court administrator for human resources and running the court's procurement office. Flood also took a leading role in the court's response to a cyberattack that last year shut down the court's online capabilities for six weeks.

According to Flood, he had been set to retire June 6, but, likely because of his work dealing with the cyberattack and his familiarity with the system, court leadership asked him to step into the top administrative role until a permanent replacement could be found for Evers, who had been working in court administration for 47 years. Flood said he has now set Nov. 1 as his last day on the job.

For now, though, Flood said priorities are all related to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and updating the court's antiquated technology. So far, Flood said, he's been busy trying to acquire Zoom licenses and cameras for videoconferencing.

"My first priority is trying to make sure we're more accessible through remote [measures] and the second is getting the courthouse ready for when it is opening up again," Flood said. "We're getting there. We're starting to open things up slowly, and we're hoping to have jury trials sometime in September if we can."

According to court spokesman Gabriel Roberts, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania conducted the search for a permanent court administrator. The process, Roberts said, was not simply an internal search, but had been opened up nationally.

McSorley, who has been working within court administration for 35 years, said his immediate priorities likely won't differ much from Flood's, as the court's response to COVID-19 and efforts to update its IT infrastructure will be top on his list.

"We're prioritizing what we can now, but we can't stop there. We're going to have to make sure that every courtroom has the full ability of Zoom and public access," McSorley said. "We want to know the next time something happens, the court would be in a better position to respond."

Before having to focus largely on the court's response to the pandemic, McSorley worked in both the Municipal Court and Common Pleas administrators, and is well known by the city's criminal justice partners, as he has long been involved in bail reform efforts as part of the city's $3.5 million MacArthur Foundation grant. That history, he said, makes him well-suited for the role.

"I think [working on implementing the MacArthur grant] gave me more of a 30,000-foot experience in looking at the court," McSorley said.

Once the courts begin more fully operating again, McSorley said he expects his plate will be full dealing with the budget ramifications of the pandemic—which has hammered municipal coffers across the country—and continuing to work on criminal justice reform measures. He also said he expects to focus on addressing the findings of a recently released equity study commissioned by the FJD, which found nepotism, mistrust and racial tensions are plaguing the courts.

All told, McSorley said he is expecting a demanding first day,

"The good part is, to be candid, Marc and I have worked together for many years, and it is almost as close to having a mentor here," McSorley said. "I'm really hoping this is going to be like a baton race. He's going to hand it to me and we're not going to break stride."