Building for a Better Tomorrow
By As I begin my year as your Chair, I am humbled to have this honor to serve such a talented, committed group of attorneys. I have been privileged to work with you in my practice and while at the Office of Administrative Hearings. We all work very hard to apply administrative law to help our clients, the citizens of North Carolina and the administrative process. Each day, we are building for a better tomorrow.
James Madison in the Federalist papers talks of the need to have a strong, effective form of government which includes the administrative process. Fundamental to this effort is the requirement of due process and equal opportunity to access and participate in the administrative process. Attorneys have been the core of the effort to make Administrative Law the best it can be for many years. With the chaotic atmosphere we are living in and the seemingly strong desire to find quick simple solutions to the myth of less government is better, there is no time like now for your strong efforts and leadership. Do we want a government that acts as it wishes with no meaningful recourse for public engagement and response? Do we want processes which do not place primary emphasis on notice and appropriate time and means to respond? Do we want professions or trades to be licensed without appropriate training to practice their professions or trades, or to have them not licensed at all when they may affect the health and safety of our people? Do we want elected leaders or members of the judiciary to act without the benefit of respectful and honest guidance?