By Nahale Freeland Kalfas

There are times when administrative lawyers wish they could get the “scoop” from General Assembly insiders – to help them understand how to improve why things happen and what can be done. This interview with recently retired General Assembly attorney Karen Cochrane-Brown may offer practitioners some of those wished-for, useful insights.

Karen Cochrane-Brown retired from the North Carolina General Assembly on August 1, 2020. This article is based on an interview conducted earlier this year. As Cochrane-Brown was one of the first legal leaders I met when coming into the practice of Administrative Law, I was particularly excited to spend some time chatting with her.

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From OAH:

In response to public comments, the Office of Administrative Hearings and the Rules Review Commission have approved amendments to the Administrative Rule Style Guide. The updated version of the Style Guide is now available here on the OAH website.

If you want to see exactly what changed, a redline version is available here. Examples of changes include: use of “their” as a plural pronoun, and clarification of which statutes to cite in a history note.

As a reminder, the Style Guide is meant to assist agencies drafting rules; it is not a binding document. If you have any questions, contact Rules Division staff.

From OSBM:

OSBM has updated its guidance materials for regulatory impact analyses to more fully address common questions and challenges. The revised guidance can be accessed in the State Budget Manual Chapter 10. Additional resources, helpful links, and the archive of approved analyses are also available on OSBM’s regulatory analysis webpage.

By Nahale Freeland Kalfas

We all have that one mentor whose guidance has been invaluable to our professional advancement or simply an individual who we have admired from afar, and we all like to have our efforts recognized. Now is the time to acknowledge that person. We are now accepting nominations for the North Carolina Bar Association Administrative Law Award for Excellence.

This award was established in 2017 by the Administrative Law Section Council to honor an attorney:

(a) who has practiced administrative or regulatory law for at least ten years and who has continuous experience in this practice;

(b) who is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and the Administrative Law Section;

(c) who has an exemplary record and reputation in the legal community and follows the highest ethical standards;

(d) who has an exemplary record of active participation in the efforts to improve the administrative and regulatory process for regulators, the regulated public, the citizens of North Carolina and in the interests of justice.

Please note that award nominees must be residents of the state of North Carolina and must also be nominated by a member in good standing of the North Carolina Bar Association.

*Nominations will be accepted through Monday, March 1, 2021.

Please click here to access the nomination form. Submit completed nomination forms to Lauren Colvard, Communities Manager, at [email protected].

In the “olden” days, before September 2019, some felt that dealing with the Rules Review Commission (RRC) and the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) kind of cramped their rule-writing style. Many will recall the seemingly endless corrections of “which” to “that” or from “including but not limited to” to “including.” And then there were the poison pill words ending in “ly” that regularly tripped up rule-writers. Frustration was often an undercurrent.