The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Judge Christine A. Ward as the administrative judge of the civil division of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 1, 2017. In the five years since, she has shepherded the civil division through unprecedented times. An average of 13,823 new civil cases were filed every year in Allegheny County since 2017, yet Ward has miraculously prevented any court backlogs—despite a worldwide pandemic and a statewide judicial emergency that shut down or inhibited normal court operations for six consecutive trial terms.