DEEP DIVE LUNCHEON: Tips to Successfully Transition to a General Counsel Role by Consilio

Brie Buchanan is currently Vice President & Chief Legal Officer for Calloquy, PBC, a videoconferencing platform for virtual litigation proceedings and court reporting.  Ms. Buchanan focuses her in-house priorities on protecting business assets of all kinds, ensuring regulatory and ethical compliance by corporate stakeholders, and Calloquy’s intellectual property. Prior to joining Calloquy, Ms. Buchanan was VP & General counsel for Relay Payments, Inc., a fintech start-up offering electronic payment services to the trucking industry. Ms. Buchanan was also Associate General Counsel, Assistant Secretary, and Compliance Officer for Neenah, Inc., (now Mativ, Inc.) a publicly traded fine paper and filtration manufacturer. Ms. Buchanan also worked in private practice for large, global law firms for over ten years as an intellectual property and commercial business litigator. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Buchanan obtained her BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, and registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office while still a law student at Vanderbilt University. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

David Green is the Senior Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Global Payments and has served in that position since 2013. David is responsible for all of the company’s legal matters worldwide, as well as regulatory compliance, data privacy, and communications. David is also the executive sponsor of the company’s Pride Network.

Since joining in 2003, David has provided legal support across the company’s corporate landscape. He previously served as senior vice president and division general counsel, with primary responsibility for worldwide mergers and acquisitions as well as the company’s operations in the Americas. Over his tenure at the company, David led negotiations for the company’s transformational acquisitions, including the Heartland merger in 2016 and the TSYS merger in 2019.

Prior to joining Global Payments, David was an attorney at the law firm of King & Spalding LLP. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and earned his J.D. from the Emory University School of Law. David and his wife, Laura, reside in Atlanta, Georgia with their two daughters.

Ashoo Sharma is the Vice-President and General Counsel, Harry Norman REALTORS^®.As the Chief Legal Officer, Ashoo oversees all risk management, compliance, and litigation or regulatory matters. She serves on the company's senior leadership team and leads diversity and inclusion goals as ambassador of the People and Culture Council. She was awarded the Diversity Champion award for the company’s DEI work by Georgia Legal Awards in 2022 and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2023. Considered an industry expert, Ashoo regularly authors and speaks on topics of real estate, legal, diversity, and professional best practices. She is past Barrister in Bleckley Inn of Court and recipient of several professional excellence awards, including 2006 and 2007 “Georgia Rising Stars" by Super Lawyers publication, 2017 "GC Impact Award" by Fulton County Daily Report publication, 2020 Top 100 Corporate Counsel by OnConferences, and 2023 GC Powerlist Atlanta award by The Legal 500. In November 2020, Ashoo was appointed by the Governor to the Georgia Equal Opportunity Commission's Advisory Board to help safeguard Georgians from housing discrimination and elected to become its Vice-Chair. Since 2020, she has also served on the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Georgia Chapter as Vice-Chair. ‘Paying it forward,” she often mentors law students and junior level attorneys through various organizations.