Chuck Anderson is a partner at Ellis & Winters in Raleigh, with 40 years of practice concentrating in commercial real estate, debt finance and bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. He is a founding partner of the firm and heads its Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group.

Anderson represents lenders and borrowers in commercial lending transactions, including construction loans, revolving credit facilities and term loans secured by commercial real estate. He also represents secured lenders in loan workouts, restructurings, forbearance agreements and foreclosures, and advises secured and unsecured creditors in complex bankruptcy cases.

A memorable matter involved representing the largest secured creditor in the Purvis Farms Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Eastern District of North Carolina — a complex agricultural case that resulted in a confirmed plan of reorganization, preserving jobs across Eastern North Carolina.

He is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and serves on the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors.

Dick Archie is an attorney at White & Allen in Kinston, with 28 years of practice concentrating in real estate law.

Archie has served in leadership roles with the North Carolina Bar Association’s Real Property Council and the Board of Directors for RELANC. He has also planned and presented at continuing legal education programs for the Real Property Section.

He does not think of himself as a leader so much as someone working alongside other real estate attorneys across North Carolina to protect clients in what is often the largest transaction of their lives. He is known as a collaborative resource for title and closing issues — someone attorneys call even when he is not directly involved in a transaction.

He noted a concern about the coming years: the shortage of real property attorneys in rural counties will worsen as practicing attorneys retire and fewer lawyers choose the practice area, a challenge he said remote title searching alone cannot solve.

Trey Baker is a partner at Shumaker in Charlotte, with 20 years of practice concentrating in corporate law and commercial real estate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, organizational structure and succession planning.

Baker serves as the firm’s Real Estate and Development Regional Service Line Leader. He is known for taking a holistic, big-picture approach to client representation — considering long-term operational goals alongside immediate transactional needs rather than addressing each deal in isolation. He said one of the most rewarding aspects of his practice is watching projects come to life and knowing he played a role in shaping the built environment.

He is a member of the Mecklenburg County Bar Association and has been recognized by Business North Carolina Legal Elite in Real Estate (2026) and Business (2017).

He said the coming year will bring continued evolution in real estate transactions, with strategic use of AI tools transforming how lawyers handle corporate and real estate work to deliver greater value to clients.

Tony Barwick is a partner at Brooks Pierce in Raleigh, with 25 years of practice concentrating in commercial real estate, with a particular focus on real estate finance involving debt and equity structures.

Barwick began his career in finance before transitioning into commercial real estate finance and ultimately a full-service commercial real estate practice shaped by his clients’ evolving needs. He has helped develop or finance several hotels in Raleigh since 2006 — projects he said allow him to witness firsthand the city’s growth over two decades. Most recently he assisted a client in acquiring the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh, a transaction he said will bring added investment, jobs and revenue to the city center. His clients include some of the largest hotel and multifamily developers in North Carolina.

He said his niche focus on debt and equity in real estate finance allows him to stand out in the Triangle market and deliver the depth of expertise clients are looking for.

Nachael Bright is a partner at K&L Gates in Charlotte, with nearly 25 years of practice concentrating in complex structured finance transactions, commercial real estate finance and loan servicing matters.

Bright serves as practice group coordinator for the firm’s Finance practice and regularly represents lenders, investors and financial institutions in secured and unsecured financial transactions, including servicing-related matters for performing and non-performing loans. She has particular experience representing servicers and special servicers in large commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions and enforcement of remedies.

Before joining K&L Gates in 2012, she was a partner in the Global Finance and Debt Products Group at Alston & Bird in Charlotte. She is active in the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council and is a member of the Real Property Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association and Commercial Real Estate Women.

Kimberly Coward is the managing partner of Coward Hicks & Siler in Cashiers, with 38 years of practice concentrating in real estate law.

Coward is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Real Property Law — Residential Transactions and served as chair of the North Carolina State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization and chaired the Real Property Specialty Committee.

Her most meaningful matters have involved reconstructing complex ownership histories in western North Carolina, where land records are often layered and incomplete. One notable transaction required tracing a title history through multiple generations — including a visit to a South Carolina courthouse — to close a U.S. Forest Service land acquisition for an elderly client who needed the proceeds.

She believes lawyers are called counselors at law because “the law is not just rules and documents; it is a way to help people accomplish important things in their lives and businesses.”

Elizabeth Cramer is the managing partner of Goosmann Rose Colvard & Cramer in Asheville, with 18 years of practice concentrating in commercial, residential and development real estate law and business transactions.

Her representative clients include Greater Asheville Regional Airport, The Cedars Heritage Place and Beverly-Grant. Her memorable matters include negotiating the purchase and refinancing of a local business’s called commercial loans during the 2008–2010 recession — a deal that stabilized the company and kept it thriving — and representing a veteran experiencing homelessness in the purchase of his first home. She is also currently representing a developer revitalizing a historic business into a resort, condominium and hotel destination in western North Carolina.

She said she believes well-structured deals have the power to create long-term value not only for clients but for the communities in which they operate — a philosophy that drives her approach to every transaction.

Laurie Gengo is the founder and owner of Triangle Law Group in Raleigh, with 37 years of practice concentrating in real estate law, including residential and commercial landlord-tenant matters, construction law, contractor and real estate broker licensing, homeowner association law, toxic mold litigation and general business law and litigation.

Rather than handling real estate closings, Gengo’s firm focuses on the legal disputes and complications that arise from those transactions. She said she particularly enjoys taking on complicated cases involving issues of first impression in North Carolina landlord-tenant law — a practice area she describes as challenging, fascinating and never the same from one day to the next.

She said her background in the visual and performing arts informs how she approaches her work: “Because of my interest in the visual and performing arts, I find that I can often apply my creative side to crafting out-of-the-box solutions to our clients’ legal issues.”

Elizabeth “Biz” Harrison is a partner at Gaskins Hancock Tuttle Hash in Raleigh, with 31 years of practice concentrating in commercial real estate transactions.

Harrison comes from a real estate law family — her father, Woody Harrison, has practiced real estate law in Wilson for 50 years — and said the practice area appeals to her because it involves working toward a common goal with all parties rather than against opposing counsel.

Her bar leadership has been particularly impactful at critical moments in the profession. She chaired the North Carolina Bar Association’s Real Property Section during the arrival of LegalZoom, served as tri-chair of the NC Closing Attorney Best Practices Task Force during the initial implementation of CFPB rules and led a group of volunteer practitioners to assist the Administrative Office of the Courts with the rollout of the Odyssey court system in pilot counties.

She currently serves on the NCBA Legislative Advisory Committee, the NC Secretary of State’s Land Records Advisory Committee and the Land Records Task Force.

Thomas Holt is a shareholder at Bagwell Holt Smith in Chapel Hill, with nearly 36 years of practice concentrating in residential and commercial real estate transactions. He anchors the firm’s Southern Village office.

A Pennsylvania native, Holt spent several years as a social worker before enrolling at the University of North Carolina School of Law, earning his Juris Doctor in 1990. He said his social work background has proven to be one of his most valuable professional assets — bringing a calming presence to closings that help clients navigate significant and sometimes stressful financial transactions.

Holt volunteers with the North Carolina Lawyers Assistance Program of the North Carolina State Bar and serves on the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation board. In 2013 he received the Chief Justice’s Lawyers Assistance Program Award.

David Iacuzio is a partner at Holland & Knight in Charlotte concentrating in real estate finance. He represents lending institutions, borrowers, servicing groups and joint venture parties in transactions ranging up to $7 billion, including mortgage, mezzanine, debtor-in-possession and construction loans, loan workouts, restructurings and pledge fund formation.

Iacuzio earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and psychology from Clark University and his Juris Doctor cum laude from Suffolk University Law School. He has represented lenders in real estate loan originations, loan sales and acquisitions, and has assisted servicing groups with workouts, restructurings, assumptions, defeasance payoffs and partial property releases.

Jeremiah Jackson is the founder of Jackson Law in Wake Forest, with nearly 22 years of practice concentrating in residential real estate transactions, including contract drafting, title work, purchases, refinances, construction transactions and corporate entity formation for real estate ownership.

A native of Carolina Beach and longtime Triangle resident, Jackson earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Political Science from North Carolina State University and his Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

His practice spans the full range of residential real estate work — from representing buyers, sellers and lenders to curative title work and construction transactions — built on two decades of navigating both the high and low water marks of the real estate market.

John Livingston is a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in Raleigh, with 20 years of practice concentrating in real estate development, energy transactions and corporate leasing. He leads the firm’s Real Estate Investment and Development team and co-leads its Energy team.

A civil engineer by training, Livingston brings technical depth to complex transactions involving traditional real estate, mixed-use development and energy infrastructure. His notable matters include coordinating 15 simultaneous apartment complex sales in multiple states for Hudson Capital Properties, leasing more than one million square feet of distribution space for a major AI company’s data centers and guiding the development and sale of utility-scale solar farms for Geenex Power involving complex leasing, environmental issues and international electricity providers.

His bar and community involvement includes the NCBA Real Property Section, the Urban Land Institute’s Rethinking Southern Cities Council, the Center for Energy Education Board of Directors and the Midtown Raleigh Alliance Board.

David Martin is a member at Murchison Taylor & Gibson in Wilmington, with approximately 30 years of practice concentrating in commercial real estate transactions, real estate finance and loan workouts and foreclosures.

Martin’s notable representations include working with the developer of a 235-acre mixed-use community and representing financial institutions in more than 400 loan workouts and foreclosures during the recession.

He served as chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Real Property Section (2024–2025) and as vice chair the preceding year and remains on the section’s Executive Committee. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America in Real Estate Law for multiple years, including Lawyer of the Year in 2023.

He said he attributes his success to his ability to work with other attorneys and clients who are “successful and good people” — and that his father, a real estate lawyer, inspired him to pursue the law.

Brock Mitchell is a partner at Hornthal, Riley, Ellis & Maland in Elizabeth City, with 24 years of practice concentrating in real estate transactions, bankruptcy, business formation, contracts, taxation and estate planning.

Mitchell represents businesses, lenders, developers and individuals in real estate transactions and guides clients through Chapter 7, 11 and 13 bankruptcy proceedings — from initial filing through reorganization — while also advising on workouts and alternatives to filing. He serves on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Real Property Section Council and is a former co-chair of its Joint Forms Committee.

His community involvement includes membership in the Elizabeth City Rotary Club, the Food Bank of the Albemarle and Albemarle Area United Way. He serves on the First Citizens Bank board and previously served on the Boys and Girls Club of Elizabeth City board from 2003 to 2017.

DeLeon “Dee” Parker is an attorney at The Parker Law Office in Rocky Mount, with 28 years of practice concentrating in real estate law, including residential and commercial closings, title work and transactions involving complex ownership histories.

Parker has served on the NC Bar and NC Association of Realtors Joint Forms Task Force and has chaired the Nash County Planning Board since 2021, having served on the board for 10 years.

His practice is distinguished by a strong emphasis on systems, technology and process — an approach he said has allowed the firm to grow from a solo practice into a regional firm while maintaining a reputation for accuracy and reliability.

A memorable matter involved tracing title on downtown Raleigh property near Union Station back to Cornelius Vanderbilt — a reminder, he said, of the depth and historical richness embedded in real estate law.

Laurie Stegall is a founding partner at Stegall & Clifford in Greensboro, with 33 years of practice. She transitioned from litigation to real estate law as a deliberate life choice — shifting to a more office-based practice while home schooling her children — a decision that grew organically as real estate agents began seeking her out for closings.

Stegall focuses her practice on real estate closings and title work throughout the Triad, working with buyers and agents from major brokerages including Keller Williams, Howard Hanna Allen Tate and Berkshire Hathaway, and lenders including Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, Movement Mortgage and State Employees Credit Union. She finds particular satisfaction in untangling difficult title searches, locating missing heirs and resolving title defects that initially appear insurmountable.

Stegall finds the prospect of AI-generated title searches “terrifying” — a reflection of her conviction that complex title work demands human judgment and ethical accountability that no algorithm can replicate.

Robin Tatum is a partner at Smith Anderson in Raleigh, with 35 years of practice concentrating in zoning and land use law.

Tatum served as city attorney for both Asheville and Raleigh and spent more than five years on the four-member drafting committee that produced Chapter 160D of the North Carolina General Statutes, modernizing and unifying the state’s zoning and land use laws for the first time in more than a century. Her notable matters include leading the city of Asheville’s successful North Carolina Supreme Court case to preserve its water system, representing Raleigh in drafting and defending its Missing Middle housing ordinances and successfully challenging two separate unlawful rezoning denials that were ultimately resolved in her clients’ favor.

She previously chaired the North Carolina Bar Association’s Zoning, Planning and Land Use Section and remains active in mentoring the next generation of land use attorneys — many of whom she said are now respected leaders in the field.

Matt Waters is a partner at Jordan Price Wall Gray Jones & Carlton in Raleigh, with 17 years of practice in a hybrid real estate transaction and litigation practice concentrating in common interest communities — homeowner associations, condominiums and mixed-use developments — across North Carolina.

Waters served as chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Real Property Section (2023–24) and has chaired its community associations committee since 2019. He serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Chapter of the Community Associations Institute and chairs an educational committee developing new curriculum for community association managers — the first of its kind in the country for that organization.

He said he is known for being a practical, business-oriented real estate lawyer who focuses on solving problems efficiently — and that his hybrid transactional and litigation practice gives clients a single trusted advisor who can help them avoid disputes and navigate them when they arise.

Tiffany Webber is a partner at Thomas & Webber in Mooresville, with 10 years of practice concentrating in real estate law. She has built a following of more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers through free legal educational content aimed at homebuyers and real estate agents — an unconventional approach she said reflects her belief in empowering people before one of the most significant financial transactions of their lives.

Her work includes land use matters — one of her early cases contributed to the approval of a Costco in Mooresville — as well as oral argument before the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

She said her most cherished matters involve first-time homebuyers — including a father who signed his closing paperwork with his daughter’s unicorn pen as a reminder of the stable childhood he was working to provide. She said those moments remind her that “what may be routine for me is life-changing for someone else, and to treat the experience accordingly.”

Josh Whitaker is the managing partner of Whitaker & Hamer in Raleigh, with 24 years of practice. He founded the firm to serve the communities where he grew up, building a general practice covering real estate transactions, real estate litigation, personal injury and business law across multiple offices.

The firm sponsors and hosts Judica County Radio, a weekly radio show where attorneys discuss how the law affects everyday North Carolinians.

He said that as AI gives clients greater access to legal information, attorneys must evolve — noting that in today’s environment, “you are selling experience now, not mere knowledge of the law.”

What he remembers most is not individual cases but the moments when the firm was truly able to help someone — which he believes is why most people become lawyers in the first place.

Andrea Wood is the founding partner of The Wood Law Firm in Charlotte, with more than 35 years of practice concentrating in residential and commercial real estate, business planning and real estate litigation. She opened her firm in 2010 after practicing with several small and mid-sized Charlotte firms following her move from Virginia in 1992.

Wood is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association, the Real Estate Lawyers Association of North Carolina, the American Land Title Association and the Mecklenburg County Bar Association.

She opened her firm with a deliberate goal — to create a different type of practice where service is the top priority and the client comes before the bottom line.

“I emphasize personal service and attention to detail,” she said. “We have built a network of colleagues that help each other.”