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Fall Council Update

Mary, a white woman with brown hair, wears a brown and white button down blouse and a brown jacket.
Mary Gallimore Walker

From the Real Property Section Council: Help Shape What’s Next

The Real Property Section Council is beginning the new bar year with several important initiatives underway, from planning future Annual Meetings and creating more opportunities for members to get involved to updating commonly used forms and monitoring legislative developments.

Help Shape Future Annual Meetings

Please take a few minutes to complete our Annual Meeting Participation Survey by September 30, 2026.

The Council is already planning for the 2028 Annual Meeting and future years, including considering a possible rotation among the eastern, central and western regions of North Carolina. We want future meetings to be valuable, accessible and appealing to members throughout the state, and your feedback will help us get there.

If you have additional Annual Meeting comments or would like to join the Annual Meeting Committee, please contact Andrea Davis, Annual Meeting Committee Chair, by email.

Learn and Connect

We’d love to see you at these Section events and programs:

October 7, 2026 at noon via Zoom: Return to the Vault sponsored by Lawyers Mutual — Will Graebe presenting

October 8, 2026: NC Real Estate Horror Stories: Robots, Aliens and Dead Hands — Advanced Topics in Real Property CLE, NC Bar Center and via Zoom (Register online.)

October 17, 2026: Roast on the Coast, Pitt Street Brewing Company, Washington (Register online.)

November 4, 2026, at noon via Zoom: Return to the Vault sponsored by Fidelity National Title, Margaret Kantlehner presenting (Intersection of Real Estate and Decedents’ Estate and Trusts)

November 17, 2026: Real Property Section Council Meeting, in-person in Greensboro and via Zoom

May 13–15, 2027: Real Property Section Annual Meeting, Kiawah Island

Interested in planning a CLE?

The CLE Committee is looking for a planner for the February 2027 Hot Topics CLE. Planning a program is a great way to get involved with the Section and help shape programming that is useful to our colleagues. You can learn more about what is involved on the NCBA CLE Planner Resources page.

Interested in joining a committee?

You do not have to be a Council member to serve on a Real Property Section committee. Committees are another great way to get involved, meet other Section members, and contribute to the Section’s work. Check out the August 2026 Council meeting minutes for a list of current committees.

If you have questions or are interested in serving as a planner or committee member, please contact Mary Gallimore Walker via email or by phone at 336-754-8475.

Updates for Section Members

For more information on these and other Council initiatives, check out the minutes from our August 2026 Council Meeting.

We are excited to welcome our new Council members:

  • Tonya Mason, Mason Law Office, PLLC, Chapel Hill
  • Jimmy Haynes, Brooks Pierce, Greensboro
  • Jeff Goebel, Legal Aid of North Carolina, Raleigh
  • Elizabeth M. Snow (Lizzie), Robbins May & Rich LLP, Pinehurst
  • Sydney S. Santos, Blanco Tackabery & Matamoros, P.A., Winston-Salem
  • Samantha Decker (Sam), Alexander Ricks PLLC, Charlotte
  • Dottie Black, A Southern Land Title Agency, LLC, Southern Pines

The Council, in partnership with the North Carolina Land Title Association, is working to update commonly used real property forms, including the Preliminary Title Opinion, Final Title Opinion, affidavits and indemnities, deeds and deeds of trust.

Proposed 2026 FEO 1 was published for comment. Read the proposed opinion and access the comment submission page.

Nancy Ferguson and the Legislative Committee are following many legislative developments, including EVN extension, foreign investment document requirements, prohibitions and registration requirements under H133, affordable housing and development bills and title fraud legislation, including S423. See meeting minutes for a more comprehensive list of the work on the Legislative Committee.

NCBA Executive Director Jason Hensley attended the August 2026 Council meeting and reported on Veda, NCBA’s artificial intelligence agent that is available free to members. Learn more about Veda. He also shared an update about IOLTA funds, which have been frozen by the legislature for Legal Aid and others.

Council members, including our Enterprise Justice (Odyssey) Liaisons, participated in the eCourts Civil Practice Group to provide feedback on Enterprise Justice (Odyssey) and identify issues affecting real property lawyers. Working with AOC and Tyler Technologies, the group identified concerns, recommended improvements to the Enterprise Justice (Odyssey) system and provided examples and suggestions that were ultimately included in the Civil Practice Group’s report to Chief Justice Newby’s Committee on eCourts. Special thanks to Biz Harrison, Teri Bowling and Andrea Davis for their work on this effort.

Connect With Section Leadership

Do you have questions, ideas or are you interested in getting involved? We would love to hear from you. Please reach out to any member of the Section’s Executive Committee.

David J. Neill
Chair
Fox Rothschild LLP

Kyle Abraham Smalling
Vice Chair
Capital City Law

Peter S. Moeller
Immediate Past Chair
Moeller & Smith, P.A.

Mary Gallimore Walker
Secretary/Treasurer
Gallimore Levy Chrisawn Gallimore PLLC