I’d like to share with our community a congratulation and a heartfelt farewell to staff in the Creative Commons legal team.

First, CC is excited to announce that longtime CC staffer, Kat Walsh, has been promoted to CC General Counsel. Kat was on the CC legal team from 2012-2015 during the drafting and initial publication process of version 4.0 of the license suite. She returned to CC in 2021 as Deputy General Counsel. Kat has a nearly 20-year history in the free and open culture movements, including many years on the boards of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Free Software Foundation, and has previously worked in library policy, technology startups, and online community management. She is an advocate for free access to knowledge and for CC licensing as part of the infrastructure for an internet that belongs to everyone. As General Counsel, she oversees the legal support for all aspects of CC’s activities, provides strategic input, leads the stewardship of CC’s legal tools, and advises the organization on new programmatic initiatives.

Next, we would like to congratulate Sarah Hinchliff Pearson as she leaves her CC General Counsel post for a new and exciting opportunity. CC has been lucky to have Sarah on staff for nearly 11 years, first as Senior Counsel, then as General Counsel. Her service to CC has been marked by calm and deeply wise judgment and commitment to CC over these many years, for which our gratitude is endless.

Sarah‘s tireless research and diligence on the 4.0 license suite, as well as the translations of all the licenses, has opened up more in the world than anyone could possibly measure. The CC Global Network, the greater open knowledge community, and beyond have benefited greatly from her work.

Throughout her time at CC, Sarah has been committed to growing as a teammate and leader and to fostering the growth of others. It is thus with sadness but also admiration that we see her depart CC for the next leg of her professional journey.

The team and I want to wish them both Kat and Sarah well in their new and exciting roles.