Hello Corporate Counsel Section members,

I hope you and your families are staying safe and well. Thank you for your membership in the NCBA’s Corporate Counsel Section, and for the opportunity to serve as your Section Chair for the 2021-2022 bar year. I’d like to welcome all of our new members to the Corporate Counsel Section. We have a great group of members to connect with, plenty of opportunities to get involved, and a wealth of resources for corporate counsel at all levels.

Please join me in congratulating Clayton Morgan for being named President-Elect of the NCBA. Clayton is Associate General Counsel at Duke Energy and has been a longstanding member of the Corporate Counsel Section. Clayton brings an amazing amount of experience and perspective to the position – and it is extra exciting for our section!

Events

During the NCBA’s virtual trivia event on October 7, our section fielded two teams. A good time was had by all. One of the section’s teams won all the glory and bragging rights – way to go ChannelAdvisor SLA-yers! We have several other exciting events coming up during the bar year, and I hope to see as many of you as possible.

October 27 at 10 a.m.: Corporate Counsel Section quarterly council meeting – Let us know if you have any interest in attending a council meeting to learn more about how the section operates.
October 27 at 7 p.m.: Corporate Counsel vs. Business Law Virtual Escape Room networking event – Grab your favorite beverage and come join us for a fun night in the “School for Spies” virtual escape room! Click here to register.
January 25 & January 26: Corporate Counsel Section CLE – Following last year’s success, this year’s CLE will be held virtually over two days from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and provides 6 CLE credit hours. The theme of the CLE is Back to the Future: In-House Practice in a Post-Pandemic World. Your section’s CLE committee has been hard at work putting together an amazing CLE packed with timely topics relevant to all of us.
Spring (date TBD): Section annual meeting – Please plan to attend to vote on who will fill the section’s leadership positions for the 2022-2023 bar year. It’s the official changing of the guard right here in North Carolina!
Spring (date TBD): Thought Leadership event – Back by popular demand, we will hold our annual Thought Leadership event in the spring featuring stimulating discussion by a panel of in-house counsel. Many thanks to Smith Anderson for continuing to sponsor this event.
March 4: NCBA’s 4All Statewide Service Day – If you haven’t participated in this event in the past, I highly recommend it – a truly rewarding experience. It connects volunteer attorneys with members of the public to provide free legal answers, information and resources to callers all over the state. You don’t need expertise in any particular subject – you will be trained and equipped with everything you need.

Get Involved

If you have a question or idea that you want to share with other Corporate Counsel Section members, don’t forget that you can easily send it using the Communities Discussion Board platform. If you have any ideas for future blog posts or interest in writing a blog post, please let me or our Communications Chair Jane Paksoy ([email protected]) know – we are always looking for interesting topics to post.

The good work that our section does each year takes place in our committees. It is also a great way to get to know fellow corporate counsel members and make lasting relationships. Some of my best friends are those I met while serving on a section committee! If you are interested in being a member of any of our committees (or a co-chair of the committees marked with an asterisk below), please let me know.

• CLE
• Communications*
• Ethics*
• Legislative*
• Knowledge Resource
• Membership
• Pro Bono

Donate

Please consider donating to the North Carolina Bar Foundation. Your gift advances the mission and vision of the North Carolina Bar Foundation by supporting pro bono and public service programs and endowment grants that annually serve thousands of North Carolinians statewide.

In addition, all NCBA+NCBF section leaders, including the Corporate Counsel Section Council, will be invited to participate in the Leadership Gift Campaign from January 1, 2022 – June 30, 2022. Any section leaders who make their gift now will not be solicited in this campaign effort. The Leadership Gift Campaign is a participatory effort – so all gifts count towards our section Council’s overall participation. Last year, Corporate Counsel was second among all section Councils with 62% participation. In the spirit of a little healthy competition, let’s work together to hit that 100% mark and surpass the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section Council in the challenge!

The need for legal services is great, and all gifts help the NCBF serve North Carolinians. Thank you for your consideration.

October 20, 2021/by CorporateCounsel