By Michele Lynn
Lissa Broome, director of the Center for Banking and Finance at UNC School of Law, is dedicated to having the center lead in the ongoing evolution of the financial services industry. As part of this commitment, Broome—the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor—introduces interested first year students to the world of transactional corporate and regulatory practice through an annual career trek.
Since Carolina Law’s first-year curriculum does not include classes covering transactional law, the career trek helps students become familiar with this specialty through a day spent with practitioners in the discipline. “We’re trying to whet students’ appetite for this field and help them see that this is fun and cool work to pursue,” said Broome. “This work results in a win-win situation: lawyers work together on behalf of their clients to get a deal that meets the needs of both of their clients.”
During the most recent event, in October 2024, 18 students traveled to Charlotte for a day filled with visits to the law firms Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Moore & Van Allen, investment firm Barings, and Bank of America. At each stop, students gained insights into the field from panels comprised primarily of Carolina Law alumni employed by the host firm. Students heard the perspective of more than 20 attorneys working in some aspect of banking and finance law. Participants had the opportunity for one-on-one conversations with practitioners during the day’s lunch and dinner and at the evening reception with attorneys and North Carolina Banking Institute journal alumni.
“It was a lovely experience for the students, especially at the dinner when more personalized, laid-back conversations happened,” said Jennifer De La Rosa, director of business operations for the Center. “With seasoned attorneys asking the students questions about their background and their goals, students realized that the alumni are interested in and supportive of them.”
Based on surveys completed by students after the trip, the 2024 trek was a success. Comments included, “Prior to the trip, I did not realize how expansive the banking and finance sector of the legal field is. Armed with this newfound knowledge, I will be able to better explore what specific area of banking and finance law I would like to pursue,” and “The best thing was learning about people’s day-to-day (experiences.) I’d heard the word ‘transactional’ a lot, but never put together exactly what it entails: taking the interests of your client and putting it into a contract.”
Michael Mascia ’98, co-head of fund finance at EverBank in Charlotte, enjoys his work as a lawyer in the finance industry. Grateful for his experience at Carolina Law, Mascia and his wife, Maria, have long been supporters of Broome’s Center. “We greatly appreciate Lissa’s lifelong commitment to service and to helping young people try to become finance lawyers,” he said. “We look for ways to give back to try to help students get the same opportunities that I’ve had as a lawyer and as a banker.”
Thanks to a generous gift from the Mascias, the Center rented a minibus and hired a driver for the roundtrip to Charlotte for Broome, De La Rosa, and the career trek students and provided dinner in Charlotte for the students and the lawyers who joined them. Mascia said that he was happy to help create opportunities for the students to get a glimpse of the finance community in Charlotte and meet some of the its lawyers.
“We did what we could to make sure this event provided the best opportunities for the students,” he said. “By exposing students to this world, we give them the ability to consider interviewing for a summer job outside of litigation, which is what the first-year curriculum primarily focuses on.”
Thanks to Broome’s role as the University’s faculty athletics representative to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the NCAA, the students also enjoyed a visit to the ACC’s headquarters, located in Uptown Charlotte. Some of the students had the opportunity to do a review of a contested football play after reviewing plays from prior games.
Broome plans to continue the annual career trek, which began in 2007. “Many of our graduates end up in Charlotte as well as bigger cities with job opportunities in business legal work,” she said. “We want to have our students be the ones who are hired for those positions so we want to do whatever we can to expose them to these opportunities and give them a leg up.”
