Retiring Director for the Judicial Council/AOC’s Communicaitons, Children, Families, and the Courts Division—Michelle Barclay—speaks with Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, who will succeed her on August 1, 2025.
Retiring Director for the Judicial Council/AOC’s Communicaitons, Children, Families, and the Courts Division—Michelle Barclay—speaks with Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, who will succeed her on August 1, 2025.
Michelle Barclay: I’m retiring after thirty years of service to the Judicial Council/AOC. While you, Noelle, after serving as Assistant Division Director for nearly six years, are stepping into my position as Division Director for Communications, Children, Families and the Courts, which is fantastic. So, we decided to interview each other. You go first.
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: No, you go first! Just kidding. Ok, I’ll start with our standard opening question—what was your path to your current job?
Michelle Barclay: I was a registered nurse before I decided to go to law school. I had planned to be a lawyer in the healthcare field, but I had an internship during the summer of 1994 at the Fulton County Juvenile Court. I was very affected by the stories of the children and families they served and by the people who worked there. I was accustomed to tragic stories, and I thought I was tough because I had worked previously in the Grady Trauma ICU, but I cried more over the subject matter of my work that summer than I ever did before. So, that was a turning point. I decided I would work in the justice system, specifically in child welfare law and policy and I stopped looking for anything related to healthcare. The next summer, 1995, I worked as an intern for the Judicial Council/AOC on a federally-funded initial study that was looking to improve processes in the Juvenile Court System, called the Court Improvement Project. My internship was extended into the fall of 1995 and, during that time, my wonderful boss, Karen Worthington, got a great new job. I applied for her job, which by then had pivoted to managing the implementation of the grant for the Court Improvement Program. In Georgia, we named that new program “Justice for Children.” My next career milestone came when Cynthia Clanton became Director, and she asked me to lead a team of ten folks, instead of being a one or two person operation. All of us also took on broader roles and responsibilities at that time, which has been great.
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: You will be deeply missed, Michelle. Why are you leaving?
Michelle Barclay: Thirty years is long enough for me. I have a list of new things that I want to try. I might practice law.
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: What has been the best part of your career here?
Michelle Barclay: There are so many good days. However, I also experienced September 11, 2001 and the COVID-19 pandemic while working here. I thought the government’s reaction to those crises was pretty good both times. For me, it is a privilege to work with mission-driven people on a daily basis. I have really enjoyed working with and for judges. I have observed a lot of courts around the state, and I’m always moved by the cases, the stories, and the judges who have to make hard decisions. I’m proud of my husband for starting the Barton Center at Emory University School of Law with proceeds from the sale of his grandparents’ family farm. We were both deeply saddened by the way 5-year-old Terrell Peterson’s case was handled by so many parts of Georgia’s child welfare system, and this was our way of managing that grief and anger. Years ago, I remember sitting in the back of a room while Justice Michael Boggs was chairing a committee meeting, and he asked representatives from the Barton Center to weigh in on proposed juvenile policy. That is exactly what we hoped would emerge from Emory’s Barton Center—an entity with expertise to work on these very complicated issues. Unfortunately, I have learned that we can actually make things worse when trying to fix one thing. So, an entity that looks at child welfare policy comprehensively is so valuable for the State of Georgia.
I am proud of so many initiatives at the AOC that were successful, and even some that were not. After one failed attempt at legislative change, the Chair of the Justice for Children Committee at that time—Judge Bryant Culpepper—consoled me by saying, “we’ve learned so much this year.” That was such a good perspective, and then we were successful the very next year. I’ve also witnessed steady improvement in Georgia’s judicial branch. I remember watching a judge on the bench for an afternoon calendar in 1995, who nodded off and the local DFCS SAAG was pretending he was not asleep to keep the calendar moving. To my shock, no one seemed alarmed, and people even knew that I was there from the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Commitee on Justice for Children. I remember writing up a hot report, which Karen Worthington had to temper. That sort of thing would not happen today. Every summer, I talk to law students who work in courts all over the state and while the students have funny and sad stories about the facts, the participants in the court proceedings are professional.
I’m also proud of the creation of this Division—Communications, Children, Families, and the Courts. We had conducted a study about creating such a Division, requested by Justice Norman Fletcher, but it really became an established Division when Cynthia Clanton became Director. We no longer work in silos, we collaborate and row in the same direction.
Michelle Barclay: Now, let me interview you. What was your path to your new role?
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: I’m a litigator. After working in the private sector for six years between undergrad and law school, I graduated from Albany Law School in 2005. I started my legal career in the Atlanta office of Paul Hastings. From there, I went on to serve as the Program Director and Staff Attorney for the Fulton County Business Court. Following the Business Court, I worked for the U.S. Department of Labor representing a sub-agency in litigation. In 2015, I started my own small firm and created CourtCamp, LLC, through which I offer mock trial summer camps for kids and teens. In August 2019, I joined the Judicial Council/AOC as Assistant Division Director for Communications, Children, Families, and the Courts. I love my work in service to Georgia’s judiciary.
Michelle Barclay: What do you hope to accomplish over the next 12 months? Any priorities?
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: Our Division has four missions: (1) communications work on behalf of Georgia’s judicial Branch, e.g. the Judicial Council’s Annual Report, community engagement especially around civics education, the Georgia Courts Journal, etc., (2) staffing the Georgia Child Support Commission, (3) staffing the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children, and (4) staffing the Judicial Council’s Standing Committee on Access to Justice. So, my immediate plan is to continue the good work you started, Michelle, in support of those four missions.
From there, my top priority over the next twelve months is to support the development and roll-out of the Georgia Courts Case Management System. That project is transformative for Georgia’s justice system. It’s being built by Georgians for Georgians to create a single, state-wide court case management system to provide better data for judicial decision making, enhanced cybersecurity, and efficient integration with judicial branch partners such as DBHDD and GCIC. I and so many of our colleagues in the judicial branch are committed to its success. To that end, I encourage our readers to learn more through the project’s website and to join us on Weekly Roundtables via Zoom to provide feedback, ask questions, and to get more involved in the future of Georgia’s court system.
Michelle Barclay: And finally, what do you do for fun?
Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez: I have two main hobbies—one’s named Christopher and the other’s named Eric. Needless to say, I relish my time with my boys. I love watching them play sports and I volunteer a great deal at their schools. I grew up in a combination of Maine and New York. I always return to Maine with the boys every summer, where we love to swim, take the boat out, and walk the 4-mile dirt road that circles the lake. I don’t really read books any longer, I listen to them while folding laundry and straightening up the house. I especially love non-fiction. I’m currently listening to “The Psychology of Money.” I’ll also divulge that I love historic house museums way more than the average person. They’re fascinating! Living in East Cobb, we have several beautiful ones close by, including the William Root House and Barrington Hall. When the boys and I visited Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange a couple of years ago, we also spent an afternoon at Hills & Dales. I also enjoy yoga and spin.