AccuWeather Appoints Rushelle Bailey General Counsel

Rushelle Bailey

AccuWeather, a global provider of weather forecasting services, has appointed Rushelle Y. Bailey general counsel.

In this role, Bailey provides strategic counsel to AccuWeather’s leadership and directs the company’s legal team. Over the course of her time at AccuWeather, she has played a key legal role in the strategic development of AccuWeather services, products, advanced technologies, commercial transactions and programs from their initial stages to successful launch.

Bailey has also been instrumental in managing risks related to compliance and regulatory requirements, including data protection, privacy laws and securing and maximizing AccuWeather’s intellectual property portfolio.

Bailey joined AccuWeather as an assistant general counsel in 2019, working across all of the company’s weather, digital technology and data business lines. She was promoted to associate general counsel in 2022, and most recently served as acting general counsel since August of 2023 before being elevated to her current role as general counsel.

AccuWeather CEO Steven R. Smith said: “Rushelle has been such an asset to AccuWeather since she joined the company. She has become an expert in all areas of our business, streamlined our Legal processes, and provided high strategic council over the years on our most important issues. I am proud to be able to elevate one of our own to this extremely important role, and I look forward to having her alongside me on the executive leadership team.”

As a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging committee at AccuWeather, Bailey developed a partnership with the American Geophysical Union to reestablish the June Bacon-Bercey Scholarship for Women, named after the first African American woman to earn a degree in meteorology and became the first female meteorologist on television. She received the AccuWeather Champions of Excellence award for leadership in 2021.

Prior to joining the AccuWeather team, Bailey was an associate at Garson, Ségal, Steinmetz, Fladgate, where she served as a lead patent associate working in the engineering and technology space. Her past experience also includes roles at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and with Hon. Duane A. Hart at the New York State Supreme Court.

Bailey holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, where she graduated cum laude, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with honors from McGill University in Montreal, Québec.