Harden Named Outside General Counsel to Blue Ridge Electric Board
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383, Ext. 3213; Pager: 1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (September 4, 2007) — Debbie W. Harden, attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, is serving as general counsel for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation. Womble Carlyle became outside general counsel for Blue Ridge Electric in June 2007.
Harden is an attorney with Womble Carlyle in their Charlotte office. She earned her law degree with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1982 and her undergraduate degree in Economics as a Morehead Scholar from UNC in 1979. She is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association, Georgia State Bar, and the American Bar Association.
Harden replaces Houston Groome, who is retiring as general counsel to Blue Ridge Electric after many years of distinguished service but will continue to provide legal assistance to the cooperative and will continue as senior partner in his law firm of Groome, Tuttle, Pike & Blair in Lenoir. Groome served as associate counsel to the Blue Ridge Electric board from 1967 to 1980 and as general counsel since 1985.
Harden’s duties for the board of Blue Ridge Electric include attending monthly board meetings, advisement on general corporate legal issues, and providing and coordinating legal expertise as needed to assist the board in carrying out their responsibilities for the cooperative.
She resides in Charlotte with her husband and three children.
A full-service business law firm serving clients across the country, Womble Carlyle was founded in 1876 and now has more than 500 attorneys in offices operating in five southeastern states and the District of Columbia.
Blue Ridge Electric, a Touchstone Energy affiliate, is a member-owned electric cooperative serving more than 70,000 members in the counties of Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Alexander, Avery and Wilkes. Its subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, provides propane and other home heating fuels and heart products from offices in Caldwell, Catawba, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties.
