Meet the Speakers 2024

Chris Burti

 Chris earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from East Carolina University and received his Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law (Chapel Hill).

After fifteen years in private practice, he left the law firm of Lewis & Burti in 1994 to join Statewide Title, Inc., where he serves as Vice President and Senior Legal Counsel. Chris concentrated his practice in the areas of Commercial Real Estate, Residential Real Estate and Governmental Law. As counsel for Statewide Title, Inc., Chris works with attorneys across the State in resolving complex legal issues in residential, governmental, and commercial transactions involving real property. He is active in providing input and advice on drafting legislation to increase certainty in land records, mortgage lending and to correct problems affecting real property.

Chris is the principal course planner and speaker for continuing legal education seminars for Statewide Title, Inc., and has been a CLE presenter for the North Carolina Bar Association, The University of North Carolina School of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law, Professional Educational Systems, Inc., the North Carolina Association of Municipal Attorneys, and other professional associations. He is the principal author on the topic of Real Property Law for the Statewide Title, Inc. Newsletter and Legal Memorandum. These articles were frequently reprinted in the Campbell Law Observer and other legal journals.

Chris is a Past President of the North Carolina Land Title Association and has served for two terms as its General Counsel. He has previously served on the North Carolina Bar Association Real Property Section Council, the North Carolina Bar Association Board of Governors, on its Executive Committee and currently serves as Past Chair of the Senior Lawyers Division.

David Ferrell

 David P. Ferrell is a partner with Maynard Nexsen’s Raleigh NC office, where he concentrates his law practice in civil matters, including legislative representation, eminent domain, real estate, civil litigation, professional liability defense, energy, and public utilities, administrative and regulatory, business, and construction litigation. Ferrell is NCLTA’s lobbyist and serves as legal and legislative counsel to professional trade associations, including representing their interests before the General Assembly and various Executive Branch agencies. He frequently lectures on right-of-way acquisition, condemnation law, and legislative matters at various seminars and CLEs.

Ferrell earned B.A. degrees in Political Science and Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from Campbell University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in North Carolina and the U. S. District Court, Eastern, Middle, Western Districts of North Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a member of the Wake County (Member: Professionalism and Bench/Bar Committees) and North Carolina (Member, Real Property; Litigation; Construction and Administrative Law Sections) Bar Associations.

Lisa Steele

 Lisa Steele is the chief operating officer for Mother Lode Holding Company. Mother Lode has operations in eight Western states and two divisions that handle transactions nationwide. Lisa is a 30-year industry veteran with a background in sales, marketing, escrow, operations and leadership. She currently oversees the daily operations Mother Lode Holding Group with her two business partners. Mother Lode Holding is a privately held company started by founder, Leo French. Lisa's passion is helping others. Hanging on a worn post it note in her office, you will find a simple daily reminder: “Leadership means serving the greater good.” She is a culture creator. Steele has learned the importance of building a workplace that people enjoy, where they feel safe and appreciated, and where they care for one another and their customers. Leo French started with this simple goal when founding MLHC and Lisa is proud to carry on that goal. When not traveling to one of the branch operations, Lisa can be found at the lake, camping with family and spending time outdoors. She also serves as the CEO of the Strong As Steele Cancer Foundation, where she is proud to honor her late daughter, Taylor, by providing financial support to many cancer patients and organizations.

Matt Waters

 Matt is a Member of the Firm Jordan Price, and practices in the Firm’s Litigation Section. He concentrates his practice primarily in the area of community association law, representing HOAs and condominium associations across North Carolina. Matt’s community association practice ranges from advising the Firm’s numerous community association clients regarding covenant enforcement, amendments, title issues, and assessment collection matters, among many other things. Matt has extensive experience representing the Firm’s community association clients in foreclosure actions in counties throughout North Carolina. Matt has handled numerous covenant enforcement actions at the Superior Court level. He is also experienced in handling cases at the appellate level in North Carolina. Matt has represented the Firm’s community association clients before the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of North Carolina. Matt has also represented Community Associations Institute, North Carolina Chapter, as amicus curiae in actions before the North Carolina Court of Appeals regarding the enforceability of assessment collection.

Matt was elected and currently serves as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association, Real Property Section, and continues to serve (since 2019) as Chair of the Community Associations Committee for the Real Property Section.

Matt’s litigation practice also encompasses representing real estate developers and construction contractors in a variety of claims and disputes; and breach of fiduciary duty litigation in the area of Trusts and Estates.

Matt is a native of Eastern North Carolina, born and raised in Little Washington. Having been personally impacted by numerous hurricanes growing up in Little Washington, and engaging in his community afterwards, he saw first-hand the needs of people who might not otherwise have the access and means to hire an attorney of their choosing. Particularly in the wake of Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, Matt has dedicated time as a volunteer on a pro-bono basis to assist and guide residents of North Carolina effected by these storms through the aid of the NCBA-DLS and NC Legal Aid.

Matt is an effective advocate for clients involved in litigation, and an experienced counselor helping his clients avoid the cost, expense, and emotional toll taken by litigating disputes in the courtroom. While in law school, Matt was the Symposium Editor for the Campbell Law Review, and a Regional Champion in the 2007-08 National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Washington, D.C.

Susan Tanner, Ph.D.

 Dr. Susan Tanner is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Louisville where she explores the intersection of law, technology, and language. With a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University and a J.D. from Indiana University, her career has focused on how language and the law shape each other and influence society in the digital age.

Much of Dr. Tanner’s work has examined emerging issues related to privacy and technology through both her legal training and background in rhetoric and computational linguistics. Her dissertation used machine learning and corpus linguistics methods to analyze rhetorical strategies used in legal opinions to define the right to privacy over time. As a privacy policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, she evaluated corporate privacy policies and collaborated on research about technology and civil liberties.

Increasingly, Dr. Tanner’s scholarship is investigating the impacts of artificial intelligence on the legal profession. She co-chairs her institution’s committee on AI and regularly presents on topics like machine learning biases and the ethical use of large language models in legal writing. Dr. Tanner has experience leveraging computational linguistics and machine learning to analyze legal language from her time as an associate an A.W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellow, and she used data analytics during her time at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe. She has also collaborated with Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging to study how the brain processes complex concepts using functional MRI.

With expertise spanning technology, advocacy, and effective communication, Dr. Tanner promotes greater accessibility and transparency in the law. She is an influential voice guiding the legal discipline’s evolution in the digital age through her scholarly contributions and her dedication to diversity and inclusion initiatives across the legal academy.

Brad Pearce

Brad graduated, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, Class of 1991. Before going to law school, Brad was an officer in the United States Navy, serving three years on a nuclear fast attack submarine. Brad is an experienced bankruptcy and commercial litigation lawyer. He is admitted to the bars of the United States Courts of Appeal for the Fourth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits, and all federal and state courts in North Carolina. Brad is a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and author for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s VOLO service.

Mauri Hawkins