Greetings fellow ACC members,

I am honored to serve as President of the Washington ACC chapter.  I joined ACC in 2002 and since that time have seen amazing growth and activity in the chapter thanks to the amazing efforts of our board (past and present) and the engagement of our members.  The organization's strength lies in its local focus—the chapter meets the needs of its members and their community—and the resources of the larger ACC organization at the national (and international) level.

ACC is many things to its many members and I'd like to focus on three areas that are most significant to me—legal education; professional development; and community involvement. 

• Our chapter provides convenient and low cost CLEs on pertinent topics. Our annual ethics dinner in December is a great opportunity to celebrate the season and get ethics credits at the same time. In addition, the annual meeting provides an opportunity to fulfill all your CLE requirements in one location and attend programs on a number of different tracks.
  
  
• Beyond mere CLE credits, our programs provide great opportunities for networking—Mariner's games, Theo Chocolate Factory tour, cooking classes, wine tastings—these programs all provide opportunities to interact with your colleagues and just have some fun.
  
  
•  The Chapter also gives back to the community in two ways—our annual diversity scholarships at each of the three Washington law schools and through the Street Law Corporate Diversity Pipeline Program, designed to introduce high school students to the legal profession. Street Law presents a great opportunity to get out of the office and into the classroom and reconnect with the excitement of practicing law.

Of course, I haven't mentioned all the other benefits of membership, for example, ACC's research tools—information and Infopaks available on the Virtual Library on ACC's web site, The Docket, the association's monthly publication, and the various listservs. Or the organization's advocacy on issues such as protecting privilege for in-house counsel or multijurisdictional practice. Or the ACC Value Challenge, designed to create more efficient and cost-effective partnerships between in-house and outside counsel.

I hope you will take advantage of all ACC has to offer. I look forward to seeing you at a future event!

Thank you,

Susan Ephron
Counsel, Safeco Corporate Legal
susan.ephron@safeco.com