DEAR ACC GEORGIA MEMBER:
Welcome, 2022! I am honored to serve as President of the Georgia chapter of the ACC. Before I discuss my focus for the coming year, please join me in congratulating and thanking the 2022 GA ACC Board. Our exceptional Board members include veterans of the Georgia and California ACC Boards as well as new volunteers. I’m excited to see how their enthusiasm and ideas will shape our organization!
I am also extremely grateful for the leadership of our Immediate Past President Melloney Douce. In her farewell address, Melloney called herself ACC Georgia’s “COVID president” but Melloney’s eponymous title does not fully reflect the powerful impact that Melloney had on the GA ACC. Under Melloney’s leadership, the GA ACC hosted or sponsored over 30 virtual and in-person events in 2021, in the middle of a once-in-a-century epidemic, culminating with the in-person ACC holiday party on December 15th at City View Terrace in Sandy Springs.
Let’s recognize and embrace how the GA ACC has evolved as a professional development and networking organization. Capitalizing on the momentum from last year, your Board is actively working to design and host hybrid virtual/in-person events throughout 2022.
But the GA ACC isn’t the only one that has evolved.
All of us have flexed and both given (and received!) inordinate amounts of grace during the re-shaping of our work situations, home lives, and, indeed, ourselves as individuals. Let’s use 2022 as a great year to acknowledge and embrace who we have become as individuals and explore how to re-brand ourselves as in-house counsel in our evolved work environments.
But who have I become over the course of the pandemic and how do I re-brand myself?
My focus as President for 2022 will be to continue offering educational and social events for in-house counsel to network and learn about timely legal topics while earning CLE credits. I also want to diversify the content and delivery of GA ACC programs that accommodate and address how work, home life and the role of in-house counsel has changed.
For starters, update your social media presence by joining the NEW Association of Corporate Counsel Georgia Chapter LinkedIn page (www.linkedin.com/company/association-of-corporate-counsel-georgia-chapt…).
Be on the look-out for an invitation to our whiskey-tasting event scheduled for February 23rd from 6-8 p.m., “Not Just Another Wine-Tasting!” The GA ACC, in conjunction with the Women’s Initiative, will help you get out of your house and, if you’re a wine-drinker, out of your comfort zone.
And personifying re-branding, Wanda Morris, past President of ACC Georgia, founder of ACC Georgia’s Women’s Initiative, and newly-published author, will lead a discussion on her debut legal thriller, All Her Little Secrets. The first 20 registrants for this hybrid event, scheduled for April 14th, will receive a complimentary copy of the book!
Here’s to saying “Yes” to new experiences and opportunities!
Happy New Year!
Kathryn Hutton
ACC Georgia President
