2026 Real Property Section Annual Meeting Preview: Common Title Defects and Curative Strategies

Maggie, a white woman with dark brown hair and glasses, wears an off white blouse.By Maggie Davis

There is still time to register for the Annual Meeting! We are looking forward to seeing many of you there and hearing from our friend and colleague Maggie Davis, partner at Magnolia Legal.

Register for the Annual Meeting (May 15-16 in Asheville).

As a title lawyer, Maggie says her goal is to “clear the path forward” for her clients as they face complex title issues. At the Annual Meeting, Maggie will teach us how to “clear the path forward” too and will provide helpful curative strategies for even the messiest of title issues.

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NCBA Privacy & Data Security Section Law School Liaison Program

Lauren, a white woman with blond hair and bangs, wears wire-rimmed glasses, a royal blue blouse and gold necklace.By Lauren Clemmons 

Applications are now open for the Privacy & Data Security Section’s 2026-2027 Law School Liaison Program, a unique opportunity for North Carolina law students interested in privacy, cybersecurity and emerging technology law. The program is designed for students who want to engage with the Section, build professional connections and gain exposure to the issues shaping this constantly evolving field. Any law student who is curious about privacy and data security — or anyone who knows a student who might be a good fit — is encouraged to explore the program and apply.

Selected Liaisons will attend quarterly Section Council meetings, assist with planning the Section’s annual CLE, help compile resources for members, and promote opportunities for law student involvement. The role offers direct interaction with practicing attorneys and insight into how the Section develops programming and supports new lawyers. Eligibility requires being an active NCBA member and a 2L, 3L or LLM student at a North Carolina law school. Applications are due Tuesday, May 12, and selections will be made at the May Section Council meeting, with the program beginning in July 2026. The application is available online.

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What Asheville Revealed About the Future of Legal Leadership

Alex, a Black woman with black hair, wears a black blouse and a blazer with black and white checks.By Alex Gwynn 

The future of legal leadership is not being shaped in isolation; it is being built in real time at the intersection of crisis response, community engagement and cross-sector collaboration. A recent gathering of young lawyers in Asheville offered a clear view of what that future looks like in practice and where the profession is headed.

In Asheville, young lawyers from North Carolina and Georgia convened for a cross-state program centered on networking, service and leadership development. Hosted across multiple venues, the program blended education, community engagement and collaboration across jurisdictions. More importantly, it demonstrated a shift in how legal leadership is developed: not through theory alone, but through direct exposure to complex, real-world challenges.

That shift was most evident in the program’s focus on leadership during crisis.

A group of individuals stand in business casual attire in front of brightly lit windows.

Young lawyers in North Carolina and Georgia joined Asheville City leadership for a program on crisis response, collaboration and the evolving role of attorneys in public leadership. Photo courtesy of Envisioning Freedom Productions, LLC.

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The Middle Third

By Marc E. Gustafson

While out running with my pastor one morning, he asked me how I would best describe my law practice. The easy and most relatable way to explain at least one part of my practice was to walk him through my consultations.

In addition to representing employers, a significant part of my practice has become roughly one-hour consultations, where I meet with an executive to discuss a new employment agreement, a noncompete agreement or a severance agreement. This starts with me reviewing the relevant agreement, meeting with the client and then following up.

As I explained it to my pastor, my hour conversation with the person seeking my help is usually broken into three generally equal parts: listening to the client tell be about the background and how he or she thinks we should approach the matter; me kindly and gently explaining why I think that might not be the most appropriate approach; and providing what I think is the best path forward.

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Everything I Needed to Know about Privacy I Learned in Kindergarten?

Karen, a white woman with brown eyes and brown hair, wears a black suit.By Karin M. McGinnis

When I started practicing in the privacy and data security space years ago, my colleagues and I talked shop about the EU Data Protection Directive, sectoral laws like HIPAA and GLBA, and the early wave of data breach laws. As time passed, our conversations shifted to the Federal Trade Commission, Wyndham Hotels, poor LabMD, and the dawning realization that what was in a company’s privacy policy needed to be — well — accurate. Even then, we saw plenty of off-the-shelf privacy policies and related representations that tried, but did not line up with reality. And often, privacy lawyers were the lonely nerds in the room telling folks that maybe, just maybe, that document needed a bit more detail.

Fast forward to today: between the FTC’s steady stream of enforcement actions and the broader wave of privacy-related litigation and regulations, privacy lawyers know that what you say in a privacy policy — or should have said but didn’t — can come back to haunt you. (See this, for example.) At the IAPP global conference in March, we heard this repeatedly. As one speaker put it, if you say what you do and do what you say, you’re 80% of the way there. So, my big, not-so-earth-shattering takeaway from the IAPP this year is that accuracy matters, and digging into the details matters even more. We are no longer operating in the era of grace periods.

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