NCSTJ Chair's Column

On Thursday August 1st, NCSTJ will hold its business meeting and Town Hall. Our Vice Chair, Judge Marguerite Downing, is working very hard on preparing the second program in our series of discussions with noted jurists on handling complicated trials, this time with emphasis on dealing with the media. Look forward to official notice with all the details in the upcoming weeks. We also have a wonderful CLE planned on ethics and use of generative AI entitled “Ethics: Uses and Abuses of Generative AI (GAI) for Attorneys and Judges: An Interactive Session” on Friday, August 2^nd 10:30 AM – 12 PM. If you have not already, you should receive a flyer about this program soon. Also, of interest to you should be an ABA Showcase Seminar entitled: “Safeguarding Public Officials: Protecting Judges, Civil Servants, and The Rule of Law” which will be held on Friday, August 2^nd from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM. There are other good, informative CLE programs planned of interest to judges. You may find all of them and over valuable information on the ABA annual meeting website. That is also where you will go to register for the meeting and any special events.

NCSTJ’s dinner, which is always a sellout and a wonderful time, will be held Thursday evening at Siena Tavern at 7:00PM CT. You may register for our dinner on the website when you register for your attendance at the annual meeting. Join your colleagues in NCSTJ and some former colleagues and guests for a wonderful dinner and more importantly, a great networking and fun time. Our dinner is always a sellout and always gets rave reviews. You may recall that our dinner is usually on Friday night, but due to the movement of the President’s Reception to Friday night at the Navy Pier, we wanted to make sure that our members enjoy both this year and that is why we have changed our date. So, if you attend the meeting, you could have a great time at all three: the Judicial Reception, our dinner, and the President’s Reception.

Finally, with the Annual Meeting also comes the changing of leadership. Officially my term ends August 31^st, but we will pass the gavel at our Business Meeting on August 1^st. It has been my pleasure to serve as chair of NCSTJ for the last bar year. Thanks to all of you who have helped make this a very successful year. I want to particularly thank my fabulous Executive Committee starting with the Chair-Elect, Hon. Denise Langford – Morris, Vice Chair, Hon. Marguerite Downing, Secretary, Hon. Marian Perkins, Immediate Past Chair, Hon.Vivian Medinilla, and our other Board members who along with these officers have chaired our hard working committees this year; helped us increase our membership and retain members; helped plan and participated in CLEs and other seminars and webinars; participated in the JD’s Diversity Committee activities and the Judicial Clerkship Program; in addition to supporting each other in many other endeavors, involving other entities in the ABA, other judicial and legal organizations, and their local jurisdictions. I am proud to call all of them colleagues and friends. I look forward to the upcoming bar year. Please join us at the Annual Meeting and continue your involvement inn the next bar year. If you are reading this and are not a member, please join today and help us in our mission and help yourself to a wonderful collaboration with some of the best judges in the country. Thank you.