{"id":3009,"date":"2026-03-16T10:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/march-2026\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:36:02","slug":"north-carolina-banking-institute-journal-marks-30-years-of-shaping-banking-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/north-carolina-banking-institute-journal-marks-30-years-of-shaping-banking-law\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Banking Institute Journal Marks 30 Years of Shaping Banking Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What began in a broom closet has grown into a nationally recognized publication serving some 300 law schools, firms, and financial institutions.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By: Amy Barefoot Graedon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North Carolina Banking Institute Journal is celebrating a milestone three decades in the making. Volume 30 of the publication marks 30 years of scholarly excellence, professional connection, and growing national influence. It\u2019s a journey that took the journal from a crowded broom closet to the desks of hundreds of institutions across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published by UNC School of Law’s Center for Banking and Finance<\/a>, the journal has chronicled the most consequential shifts in American banking law since its founding in 1997 while developing generations of legal talent along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Todd Eveson \u201900 arrived at Carolina Law in fall 1997, he had little sense of what practicing law would actually look like. Civil procedure and trial advocacy left him cold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I found the Banking Institute and Lissa Broome<\/a>‘s Banking Law class, and I thought, oh, finally, something that’s interesting that I can sink my teeth into,” said Eveson, who served as editor-in-chief for Volume 4 of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the entire journal operation fit inside a broom closet on Carolina Law’s top floor, near the baseball stadium. Resources were scarce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had one file cabinet, an old school metal file cabinet. [We had] no room. We had no computers or anything like that,” Eveson recalled. “It was some floppy discs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using surplus subscription revenue, they purchased computers, a printer, and fundamentally upgraded the journal’s infrastructure. Office space became available when the School\u2019s addition opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We graduated from the filing cabinet,” said Eveson. “When you’re involved in an organization, you want to leave it in better shape than you found it. That should be everybody’s goal. When our group graduated, we felt like we’d given them something more substantial to work with from here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journal’s 1997 founding was no accident of timing. North Carolina’s financial services industry was surging and there was a growing need for serious scholarship to keep pace. Lissa Broome, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor, has directed the Center for Banking and Finance since its establishment in 2000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broome also worked alongside Carolina Law alumnus Marion Cowell \u201964, then general counsel of First Union, to form a board of advisors and launch the first Banking Institute program. The Banking Institute is sponsored by the Center for Banking and Finance and is a two-day continuing legal education program focused on cutting-edge issues for bankers and their lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students wrote papers as independent studies for what became Volume 1 of the journal. By Volume 3, the faculty had recognized the publication as an official journal. Today, it reaches approximately 300 law schools, law firms, and financial institutions across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Banking Institute has provided an important opportunity for policymakers and practitioners to discuss and reflect on the important events of the day,” said Broome.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Over three decades, the journal has documented two sweeping forces reshaping American banking: consolidation that transformed banking from a local affair into a national industry, and the expansion of bank holding companies into the delivery of a broader array of financial services, including the absorption of major investment banks during the Great Financial Crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journal’s impact extends well beyond its pages. Today, the Center for Banking and Finance awards $100,000 in annual scholarships, funded by over 50 sponsoring firms and banks, as well as a generous gift from Mike Mascia ’98 and his wife Maria. Ten third-year law students serving as journal editors each receive $10,000 scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is incredibly rewarding to give away $100,000 in scholarships to help these students offset the cost of their third year of law school,” said Broome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each spring, the annual Banking Institute program in Charlotte draws more than 200 banking professionals, regulators, attorneys, and students. The journal\u2019s student staff writers and their editors provide brief introductions to each student note at the Banking Institute in short segments interspersed throughout the two-day program, called \u201cExploring the Banking Institute Journal.\u201d Three of the journal editors also engage in fireside chats with the three featured speakers at the event. Broome says the audience loves the students being part of the delivery of the program, and notes that this distinguishes the Banking Institute in a positive way from similar programs hosted by other organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program creates networking opportunities that have launched and shaped countless careers, and Eveson’s own path is a testament to those connections. Through Broome’s class, he met guest lecturer Tony Gaeta, a local banking lawyer launching his own practice. Gaeta hired Eveson straight out of law school, and what followed was a 15-year partnership that eventually merged with Wyrick Robbins, where Eveson served as managing partner for four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I figured, why not? I wasn’t married yet, didn’t have kids, and I thought this guy was doing what I wanted to learn to do,” said Eveson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He describes his path as “right time, right place and dumb luck,” though the friendships and opportunities forged through the Banking Institute were anything but accidental. Eveson\u2019s father even marked the occasion with a custom plaque bearing the journal’s cover and masthead, created with special permission from University administrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s April 2000, Volume 4 on the bottom,” said Eveson. “I couldn’t process how he had done that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journal’s tradition of mentorship is alive in today’s students, as well. Third-year law student Sarah Campbell, current editor-in-chief, traces her path to the publication through a web of connections that began before she ever set foot in a classroom, including a conversation with Eveson himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell’s interest in banking predates law school entirely. “My mom has worked in banking since before I was born, so I always had an interest in banking after listening to her experiences and the work she was doing,” said Campbell. “Once I started taking banking classes, my interest in this area of the law only grew more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Campbell, working on the journal has been as much about community as craft. “Because the selection for journals is anonymous, I also got to meet several of my classmates that I may not have met otherwise,” said Campbell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She describes the work of bringing each volume to publication as deeply collaborative. “Getting the journal to publishable form each year is a team effort, and it’s always extremely rewarding to see our collective efforts come together,” said Campbell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what she would tell current first-year law students considering journals, her answer is unequivocal. “I always encourage them to consider a journal. It’s a fantastic opportunity to develop legal research and writing skills,” said Campbell. “Overall, it is a fantastic experience that I think all first-year law students should consider.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the journal enters its fourth decade, both its longtime faculty director and its current editors see no shortage of terrain to explore. The industry is contending with alternative financial service providers, the rise of cryptocurrency and stablecoins in the payments space, and sweeping questions about deregulation’s long-term impact on financial stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell anticipates those themes will drive coverage for years to come. “The banking industry is always changing, and innovations are always being introduced. I’m sure that the journal will continue to discuss digital assets and digital banking, as those have caused significant transformation in the industry,” said Campbell. “As other new trends and developments occur over the next 30 years, I am sure that the Banking Journal will continue to provide timely professional articles and student notes covering all of the pressing issues facing the industry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Broome, the anniversary is cause for genuine celebration and forward momentum.”Hopefully this journal will be around for another 30 years, at least!” said Broome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina Banking Institute Journal started in a broom closet with a metal file cabinet and some floppy discs. Thirty years later, it reaches 300 law schools, firms and financial institutions across the country and gives away $100,000 in scholarships every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3357,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}