By Tracy M. Wright and Jane Yumi Paksoy 

As we get into the busy holiday season, don’t forget to take time to give back to your community. The Corporate Counsel Section is hosting an in-person volunteer opportunity at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s Raleigh branch (1924 Capital Blvd) on Friday, November 18, 2022, from 9 a.m. until noon. Volunteers will provide assistance in various activities, including sorting out produce and food donations, creating Commodity Supplemental Food Program and Disaster Relief boxes, packing food items such as cereal, pasta, eggs, and other dry food.

The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina serves 34 counties and is the largest food bank in the state. Nearly 600,000 people in the Food Bank’s service area are food insecure. Last fiscal year the Food Bank provided 115 million meals with the support of 134,988 volunteer hours, which is the equivalent of 65 full-time employees. Come join your fellow Corporate Counsel Section members in supporting hunger relief for our community!

Kids 12+ are welcome to join.

Register today.

Date & Time | Friday, November 18 | 9 a.m. until noon

Location | Food Bank, 1924 Capital Blvd | Raleigh

By Tammy Nicholson

Welcome to a new bar year! Your membership is greatly appreciated and valued.

It is my honor and pleasure to serve as your section Chair for the 2022-2023 bar year.  Our section leadership team is committed to continuing our tradition of offering exciting events, from our annual CLE in January, to our Thought Leadership event in the spring and networking and pro bono activities throughout the bar year. We are also very hopeful that we will be able to come together in the fall for our first in-person event in two years! We are planning a new, exciting, and engaging program.  We can’t wait to share more details with you in the upcoming months!

Joining a Committee

Our committees are responsible for executing on the section’s goals and objectives. The good work of our committees results in our successful events and programming. The committees have already begun planning their activities for this bar year, so if you are interested in being a member on any of our amazing committees listed below, or learning more about any committee’s work, please let me know. We are always looking for new committee members who can add new and diverse ideas and thoughts. Committee work also establishes an opportunity to network with other members and to be a part of section leadership. Committee work is virtual, so do not allow travel to be a barrier to you joining a committee!

CLE
Communications
Ethics
Legislative
Knowledge Resource
Membership
Pro Bono

Renew Membership

If you have not done so already, please renew your NCBA membership for this bar year and be sure to join the Corporate Counsel Section – the deadline to renew is July 31!

Corporate Counsel Community

We have learned over the last two years how important community is during difficult times. We look forward to making our Corporate Counsel Section community even stronger, as we re-establish friendships and make new ones. Please check out the NCBA website’s Corporate Counsel Community page to learn more about our section, and to stay in touch on our activities and connect with fellow section members.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have ideas on section events or any ideas on how we can continue to add value to your membership. I look forward to a fantastic year serving as your Chair!

By Christine Mazzone, Gabe Wright, Laura Chipman, and Clara Cottrell

The Knowledge Resource Committee led by Sheila Spence and Nickeyea Wilkinson-Pickett collected four stories from in-house counsel and career coaches regarding how they handled transitions into new lines of work, including transitions from roles in law firms to in-house roles, new in-house jobs, and promotions within their companies.

How has it been transitioning in-house, to a new job, or new position during the pandemic?

Christine (New In-House Role): I joined Lenovo when most employees (myself included) were working remotely. Lenovo has about 71,000 employees worldwide, and I joined with about 150 other North America employees in early December 2021. During the pandemic, Lenovo has really figured out how to onboard employees remotely and provide a warm and informative welcome for new employees. I feel very fortunate to have had such an easy transition to Lenovo during the pandemic.

Read more

Tracy M. Wright

Jane Paksoy

By Tracy M. Wright and Jane Paksoy

Co-chairs, Jane and Tracy here, with some exciting pro bono opportunities!

1. Sign up for the upcoming DLRP Clinic on February 17, co-hosted by the Corporate Counsel Section and the NC Pro Bono Resource Center. Did you know that under North Carolina law, a person who fails to appear in court to resolve a traffic ticket or to pay a traffic or criminal debt is subject to an indefinite suspension of their driver’s license, resulting in dire consequences for drivers and their families? You can help these individuals by volunteering just 3 hours of your time with the Driver’s License Restoration Project Clinic! Sign up here to volunteer for the virtual event on Thursday, February 17, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Registration is open until Thursday, February 10, 2022. 1-hour CLE training will be provided.
2. There is an immediate need through March for volunteers for the Housing Stability Project, a joint effort between the NC Pro Bono Resource Center and the NC Bar Foundation. Volunteers will assist tenants and landlords to secure funding through HOPE, the state’s housing stability program. This is a non-litigation, non-advocacy service to help bring parties to agreement. Sign up for this urgent pro bono need here.
3. The North Carolina Lawyers for Entrepreneurs Assistance Program (“NC LEAP”) coordinates attorney volunteers to provide pro bono business law advice and counsel to small business owners through webinars and clinics held in partnership with non-profit organizations throughout the state. LEAP is looking for presenters for a 1-hour virtual session for small business owners. If you have a topic you can present on that would be helpful for small business owners, please reach out to Karsin Williard at [email protected].

We hope these help you meet your pro bono goals for 2022! Please reach out to us with any questions.