President's Message for 2024
As 2024 approaches, I am honored and excited to begin my term as president of our ACC Georgia chapter. The board and I will be building on the momentum fueled by Kathryn Hutton and her board over the past two years, and we thank them for their excellent stewardship of our organization.
We want to create opportunities for our over 1,100 ACC Georgia members to help each other. These goals include:
- Sharing our collective wisdom on in-house legal issues.
- Expanding Member Interest Groups.
- Extending our reach beyond Atlanta.
- Increasing our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and community service efforts.
- Fully integrating law firms into planning the events they sponsor.
Our members have developed hard-won knowledge of solutions to corporate law challenges across a wide variety of businesses. We plan to expand peer-to-peer exchanges to take full advantage of these experiences, as real case studies demonstrate how companies manage working with particular laws and regulations in ways hypotheticals don’t. These discussions can normalize what each of us see in our day-to-day practices.
Our sponsors will support these and other events, and we encourage attorneys from these sponsor firms who have expert knowledge to join a discussion or panel. But we will strive to hear directly from and engage our ACC members at our events.
Last year, ACC Georgia launched Member Interest Groups around intellectual property and privacy, and we plan to start several more. Think of these as akin to ACC national’s networks. These groups don’t have charters. aren’t required to keep minutes and are organized around a topic or practice area. Each group can be a place to exchange “war stories,” best practices and learn about trends in the law. Any member is welcome to join any group or any of their events at any time. Groups will meet at least quarterly and sometimes may hold joint meetings or events with other groups.
Having joined ACC Georgia while I worked in Columbus, I am familiar with the engagement challenges for members outside of Atlanta. That’s why we are planning for ACC Georgia itself to sponsor events in other areas of the state – Macon, Savannah, etc. during my term. To get to more nooks and crannies of the metropolitan Atlanta area, I’m also challenging each 2024 board member to host at least 2 small networking breakfasts, lunches, or dinners near their home or workplace by the end of each calendar year.
On the DEI front, we want to build on the success of our Women’s Initiative and also expand our reach to showcase potential sponsors that are members of groups such as NAMWOLF (National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms). Moreover, we’d like to diversify the speakers at our events.
Relatedly, we hope to set up more opportunities for members to participate in public service projects, such as working at food banks and shelters. These events tie us to our communities and pay off in good feelings from helping others.
One of our group’s greatest assets is the experience and knowledge our members bring to the table. One of the most memorable things I heard at the ACC national conference in October was a statement that the person sitting next to you at each event is an expert in something—maybe even the legal subject being discussed. It’s therefore vital that we share our expertise.
In that regard, we will need volunteers to partner with our sponsors to lead shared interest groups and provide ideas for creative, engaging, and fun events. Get active - share your expertise and your enthusiasm for whatever it is you love about your in-house practice. Please let us know how you are interested in helping make this the best chapter in the country by emailing georgia@accglobal.com.
I look forward to the coming year and thank you for your consideration and participation!
Anne Kamosso
ACC Georgia President
