The sunlight streams in, reflecting off the polished wood paneling where portraits of former Rhode Island Supreme Court justices hang. This is the room behind the bench where the justices hear appeals, behind the curtain that leads to the bench.

It’s the final Thursday morning conference of 2008 for the justices — the last for Frank J. Williams as chief justice. At these weekly conferences the justices — from left, Paul A. Suttell, Maureen McKenna Goldberg, Williams, Francis X. Flaherty and William P. Robinson III — set aside time to review cases they have decided on, going over the drafts of decisions particular justices have been assigned to write. It is also the time when they consider new cases to hear and to review motions and petitions from lawyers about cases before the lower courts.

The justices arrive one by one, joking about how late they were up the night before reading the cases now stacked on the conference table before them. Flaherty offers that he was up the latest, and Robinson jokingly counters, in one-upmanship fashion, the he used up two pens taking notes on the cases.

Before getting started, the justices talk about Rhode Island native Rocco Baldelli, who plays for the Tampa Bay Rays, pleased to read that he’s recovering from an illness that has disrupted his baseball career. The conversation is easygoing.

Flaherty notes that when they return in January the stacks of cases will be higher. And when they return, the order of seating at the gleaming conference table will change as Goldberg takes over as acting chief justice. According to a long-standing tradition, the protocol calls for the chief justice to sit at the head of the table, where Williams sits this day. And Williams, who retired as chief justice Dec. 30 but will remain until a permanent replacement is named, will move to a junior position where Robinson now sits.

Robinson will move to Suttell’s chair and Flaherty to Goldberg’s. As Williams says, “It’s like musical chairs.”

After a replacement is named, Williams will serve on the bench as a retired judge, as retired Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger does to this day. “I love the law,” William says, “but I’ve got other things to do.”

“You’ve got to be in the military to understand. You get a mission, you perform the mission and then you move on.”