The woman who has been referred to as the "chief executive officer of the Utah Judiciary," stood in front of a full room to talk about leadership and the value of learning, changing and teaching.

Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court Christine Durham spoke Thursday to the BYU Management Society about education, the way people learn and how that evolves and the importance of adapting to change, even when resources seem limited.

Durham, who was introduced as "a woman of firsts." She is, among other things, the first woman to sit on both the 3rd District Court and the Utah Supreme Court. She said that these opportunities have not been lost on her. Throughout her career she has been "concerned about issues having to do with leadership," she said, and she believes some of the most important aspects of leadership are learning and teaching.

Durham said that the public sector, including the judiciary, has some lessons to learn from the business world, especially as they are always looking for ways to operate with fewer resources.

"We need to re-think the way we do business," Durham said. "It isn't just a question of competitive advantage, but also survival."

She said the business world already sees learning as "integral" and that she couldn't agree more. Durham has long studied education and the way it influences and varies among individuals. "People learn differently, it doesn't have anything to do with IQ or intelligence," she said. But, she said, the conviction that people are always learning, growing and changing, was something she had to learn from experience.

When she was young, Durham said, she "thought of being grown-up as a static condition." But the justice said she now sees that there is a "constancy of change" in life at any age. Ultimately, it becomes apparent that people are constantly "in-process.

"We don't get to stop, don't get to be finished, we don't get to be complete in this life," Durham said, before quoting William Perry. "'I see that I shall be retracing this whole journey again and again; but, I hope, more wisely.'"

Durham then answered questions from audience members, one of whom asked what she had to say to those who believe the judiciary sometimes attempts to create laws, instead of simply interpreting them.

She responded by saying that, while the aim is to interpret the laws set forth by the Legislature, there are some arenas where "the principles that determine the laws are judge-made," such as property and contract law. She said that when the court is asked to be the "final arbiter of meaning" they don't create law, but do often set standards that may apply in the future.

Durham said that while there are complaints concerning the court that are sometimes necessary, there is a "fundamental honesty" to be found by those in the judicial branch who are committed "to the law and one another."

According to her biography on the Supreme Court Web site, Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982 and was named chief justice in April 2002. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she served as a trial judge for four years, one of them as presiding judge of the 3rd District Court. She received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and her juris doctorate from Duke University.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com