When Douglas County District Court Judge Gary Randall retires at the end of the month, it will be exactly 23 years to the day that he first presided over a courtroom.

“Judge Randall’s been a mentor and an exceptional jurist,” Douglas County District Court Presiding Judge Horatio Wheelock told The Daily Record in advance of the jurist’s Dec. 31 retirement.

“Through and through, he is an institution unto himself,” Wheelock said of his colleague. “He’s been here for such a long time and has had such a positive impact for the citizens of Douglas County. It’s going to be a loss of great institutional knowledge.”

Wheelock cited Randall’s work with the family and drug courts as being particularly notable.

“His ability to set protocols regarding child custody matters and the triage that goes into determining high conflict disputes amongst parents and trying to always make sure that the best interests of the children is on the forefront of any judicial decision,” Wheelock said.“And in many respects, he’s been a pioneer and on the cutting edge of ensuring those rights.”

Randall graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1972 and earned his law degree from Creighton University School of Law in 1974. After graduating, he worked in private practice until he was appointed to Nebraska’s Fourth Judicial District Court in 1997.

When Randall first started out as a lawyer, much of his work involved family law, which he credits as being one of the reasons he thrived in that area as a judge.

“I did trial work primarily,” Randall said.

To develop a reputation in trial work, especially as a young lawyer, he said lawyers have to do the work – regardless of whatever it is, which is often domestic litigation.

“And it turned out I – without trying to be boastful about it, I’m really not – I was pretty good at it,” Randall said. “I could build relationships with my clients, so you do a good job for one person and then two more people call you, and then three more people call you.”

Randall also credits his training in mediation for his aptitude at adjudicating family law.

“I really got kind of taken in by that and continued to get training, and I think that was one of the things that made me a reasonably good judge,” Randall said.

“Being able to see both sides of it for the litigants and trying to help point out some of those things to them as we’re going through a trial,” he said. “If somebody can have a say in the outcome of their situation, and if they feel that they’ve truly been heard, I think it allows them to find peace within themselves.”

Randall took the same approach as a member of the Douglas County Adult Drug Court, which he joined in 2003. He has been a firm believer in treatment and rehabilitation for drug offenders. As a judge, he would take the time to talk with and get to know the men and women who would come through his courtroom. He took genuine interest in their wellbeing.

“He’s been the head of that drug court for many, many years and, talk about leaving a true impact on our society and Douglas County,” Wheelock said. “The amount of graduates that have gone through that drug court, and the lack of recidivism of people who graduate the drug court and have been able to make those life changes.”

Randall was also at the forefront of bringing the latest technology into the courtroom. As a member of the state’s judicial technology committee, he helped write a grant that would provide funds for new equipment for his courtroom, allowing him “to be the guinea pig” in Nebraska.

“I’ve always loved technology and I just knew that we could do a lot more,” Randall said. “I mean, what were we using before? A VCR on a cart with a 20-inch screen. And then the jury was supposed to be able to see that and be able to get the benefit of the presentation of that evidence?”

Randall was able to replace the TV cart with high definition flatscreen monitors, making it easier for juries to clearly see the evidence being presented. He added remote telecommunications capabilities so that witnesses who were unable to make the trip to Omaha could still testify before the jury.

“I’ve had people testify from the Philippines,” Randall said. “They didn’t have to come to Nebraska. I’ve done remote testimony in civil trials in front of a jury a number of times and it’s allowed the litigants to be able to present their case with a little more ease than they could have otherwise or even maybe they couldn’t have afforded that evidence be presented if they had to bring somebody from across the pond, so to speak.”

The technology in Randall’s courtroom came in especially handy this year as the threat of COVID-19 precluded many in-person hearings at the courthouse.

“It turned out to be very beneficial to be able to have someone testify from jail,” Randall said. “We’re doing, daily, multiple hearings from jail with different defendants, and it means that once they get to a certain point, we can sentence them and then they can get on a bond and the county doesn’t have to pay to keep them in jail.”

Wheelock said he believes that the technology Randall introduced to the county court system is a vital part of the judge’s legacy.

“Ultimately, what technology does is it makes it so that access is granted to all within the court system,” Wheelock said. “His parting legacy that will continue for many, many years, if not decades, will be his impact on court access to all our wonderful citizens.”

Out of the thousands of cases Randall presided over, there are two that he remembers as particularly notable.

After a 2009 explosion at a Slim Jim plant in North Carolina killed four employees and injured many more, Jacobs Engineering, a contractor hired by Conagra Foods to perform services at the plant, paid out about $108 million in damages to settle lawsuits that alleged it was at fault.

Jacobs later sued Conagra, which was then still headquartered in Omaha, to recoup the money, saying it had no role in the explosion. The case made its way to Randall’s courtroom in 2016. The trial took 19 days and the complexity made Randall almost giddy.

“I had really good lawyers from all over the country and it was exciting,” Randall said. “That makes me kind of a geek, I get it, but it was exciting to see people really good in their profession doing what they’re doing and talking to a jury and seeing how much work they did to prepare witnesses to make sure they knew what they were talking about and they could provide credible, important facts.”

The jury ultimately found in favor of Jacobs Engineering and ordered Conagra to pay $108.9 million in damages.

“I believe that it’s the largest judgment that has ever been issued in Nebraska, by a jury,” Randall said. “That’s one of the biggest cases we’ve ever had in Douglas County, or maybe the biggest. I had, like, 12 lawyers in the room, each side had like five or six lawyers and you’re stacking them on top of each other.”

The trial brought national attention to Omaha, with reporters from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times covering the case, Randall said. That kind of attention “causes you to be at the top of your game,” Randall said.

Another trial that garnered a lot of media attention was the Anthony Garcia case, during which Garcia was found guilty of committing four murders – two in 2008 and two in 2013.

“It had a lot of nuances and a lot of really interesting things that happened,” Randall said.

While he is looking forward to retirement and spending more time with his grandchildren, Randall said that he doesn’t think he’ll be leaving the law behind him entirely.

He expects to continue teaching at institutions like the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Metropolitan Community College. He has previously taught income tax and public policy, among other subjects.

“I may be interested in doing that again,” Randall said. “I also think I’d like to probably work in the area of mediation.”

Randall is also leaving the door open for his return to the bench as a substitute judge, should the need arise.

“I absolutely love this job,” he said. “But it takes a lot out of me at the same time. There’s a lot of emotion that goes into it, because criminal things where there are victims and people that get hurt and trying to figure out the reparations and jail isn’t really always the answer. That’s hard work, emotionally along with legally.”

Randall said cases can take a lot of preparation.

“I just thought, well, there’s probably something more to life than just the law, he said. “And I earned this retirement. I might as well use it.”