A Message from the Chair of the NCBA Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes Section

By Jenna Fruechtenicht Butler

Dear Members of the Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes Section:

Thank you for re-joining and joining the Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes (ACBD) Section of the NCBA for the 2019-2020 bar year.  I am honored to serve as your Chair.  Your leadership team of officers, council members, and committee chairs already are hard at work representing the section and planning activities for the upcoming year.

As many of you are aware, our marquee event is the ACBD annual meeting and full-day CLE regularly held in February and chaired this year by Tom Segars.  We have an exciting program lined up for February 13, 2020 with a wide variety of speakers so I encourage you to please go ahead and mark your calendars so you can attend in person and network with your fellow section members.

We also are excited to announce the upcoming launch of our Privacy Protection pro bono initiative.  This effort is being headed by Nathan Chase and has been the work of a number of council members for quite some time.  The initiative will include distributing Privacy Protection brochures to local libraries and Legal Aid offices throughout the state to assist consumers with issues of identity theft, unwanted telemarketing calls/texts, and unsolicited mail/email.  Nathan will be telling you more about this initiative in the upcoming months.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we are planning a short (1-2 credit) CLE and networking social to be held in Wilmington in May.  We will share more information about this event as we finalize the plans.  I am excited to host the section on the coast when the temperatures are warmer and hope you will plan to join us.

In addition to the activities above, I also encourage you to take advantage of the new benefits associated with your bar membership.  Every member of the Bar Association now is entitled to one free Section membership.  Please encourage your colleagues, and particularly those who may be new to the Bar Association, to use that perk and join our section!  I also highly encourage you to take advantage of the monthly On Demand CLE offered for free by the Bar.  Each month when the Bar emails you about the free “expert series” CLE for that month, simply click on the link and add the CLE to your cart where you can purchase it for no cost.  The presentation then remains available to you for 90 days.  I recently took advantage of the November offering and found it quite informative plus I discovered it qualified for the new technology credit.  The December offering qualifies for the substance abuse/mental health credit.

It is a privilege to serve as your Chair this year, and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at one of our events.  In the meantime, if you have any questions or are interested in becoming a council member or serving on a committee, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Enjoy the upcoming holidays and please join us at the ACBD annual meeting in February.

Sincerely, Jenna