EDITOR’S FOREWORD: NEW LEADERSHIP ARRIVES

Written by Benjamin G. Shatz
Editor-in-Chief

As you probably know, this journal publishes three issues a year. The third issue of the year (e.g., this issue) follows the end of the CLA-leadership year (a September-to-September calendar), meaning that the Litigation Section now has a new chair for the upcoming "bar year." Unless you follow the Section closely, you may not notice these leadership changes. Indeed, despite having been sent a large number of emails from CLA and the Section about such things, it’s quite possible that the first time it actually registers that there is a new chair, is when you happen to notice a new head shot for the Chair’s column that leads off each issue of this publication.

All of that is to say, we’ve got a new chair you should know about. The 41st Litigation Section Chair is Adrieannette Ciccone. She introduces herself in her first Chair’s column immediately preceding this foreword. But I want to make my own introduction. I first met Adrieannette at an in-person CLA/Section event in San Diego when she joined the Section Executive Committee back in 2018. I was taken by her enthusiasm for the Section and could tell even then that she had a future in Section leadership, should she so desire to pursue that path. We are lucky she did. Adrieannette is passionate and energetic, which are qualities any volunteer organization is lucky to have in leadership. She was also instrumental in the formation and success of Racial Justice Committee, which started as a Litigation Section idea, but simply could not be contained to a single section, and so became a CLA-wide endeavor. In short, Adrieannette already has much to be proud of regarding her CLA service. No doubt more good things are coming.

Of course, all of our Section chairs have been remarkable and accomplished. Yet they typically are not called out in a foreword like this. I do so here because it seems meaningful to point out that (as far as I can tell) Adrieannette is the first woman of color to lead our section in 25 years. CLA embraces diversity and inclusion as a core value, so it is fulfilling to see that reflected in Adrieannette’s ascension. The broader point worth emphasis, however, is that anyone with an interest and drive can follow in her footsteps and achieve similar accomplishments.