Administrative Office

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) plays a key support role in helping the federal Judiciary conserve and enhance society's trust in the federal courts. This trust depends on these core values of the federal Judiciary:

• the rule of law
• equal justice
• judicial independence
• national courts of limited jurisdiction
• excellence
• accountability

The agency is a unique entity in government. Neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch has any one comparable organization that provides the broad range of services and functions that the Administrative Office does for the judicial branch. The agency's lawyers, public administrators, accountants, systems engineers, analysts, architects, statisticians, and other staff provide a long list of professional services to meet the needs of judges and the more than 32,000 Judiciary employees working in more than 800 locations nationwide.

The Director of the Administrative Office is the chief administrative officer for the federal courts and secretary to the Judicial Conference of the United States.