Welcome to a new year with our section!

By Amanda Conn
General counsel, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

Happy new year to all of the members of the State and Local Government Law Section. I
hope each of you had a safe and relaxing holiday season. The Section Council hopes to continue to provide you with useful and timely programs in the new year that will help you in your practice and the clients you represent.

The non-presidential general election makes for a busy and interesting couple of months for attorneys in our section because the election brings changes to the state and local government clients we represent.

New and returning local elected officials were sworn in at the beginning of December. Members of the General Assembly are sworn in on the first day of session, January 11. The State’s new Governor, Wes Moore, will be sworn in on January 18 along with our new Attorney General, Anthony Brown, and Comptroller, Brooke Lierman. New state cabinet members will likely have been selected by January 18 and take over their new roles on that date as well.

We play a vital role in acclimating those new elected officials to the legal authorities that govern us so they can quickly get to the business of governing.

We have started the planning process for our ever popular all-day spring State and Local Government Institute. We hope to provide great speakers on topics that are timely and of interest to our members such as the passage of the legalization of marijuana and what it means for employers.

Please feel free to pass along any ideas for our Institute program to me at amandasconn@gmail.com and I will be sure to get them to our Program Committee.
Also, look for a save the date for the Institute in the next couple of weeks. Best wishes for the new year!