Emily Roscoe works and researches at the intersection of law, government, and information. Roscoe earned her MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, her JD from UNC School of Law, and her PhD from UNC School of Information and Library Science. She has held previous positions in state government writing policies about public records management. Since 2010, she has been an advisor to the North Carolina Registers of Deeds Association on a variety of information management issues, including the drafting of new regulatory minimum indexing standards for real property instruments. She managed a more than $840,000 federal grant awarded to the School of Government and the School of Information and Library Science to facilitate the future of public information professionals with the understanding that stewardship of public information is a fundamental responsibility of a democratic society. She worked in various capacities at UNC’s Law Library, particularly in reference and faculty research support. Since 2016, she has taught undergraduates in the School of Information and Library Science in a course about retrieving and analyzing information for which she was awarded the department teaching award in 2020. Her research is currently focused on legal liability risks for public collecting institutions like libraries and archives and information privacy issues for government.

Selected Publications

Roscoe, E. Potential of Legal Liability for Collecting Institutions: An Empirical Study of Legal Claims Involving Collecting Institutions and a Comparison with How Legal Issues are Included in LIS Graduate Curricula (Dissertation)

Szypszak, C. and Roscoe, E. Privacy and Public Real Estate Records: Preserving Legacy System Reliability Against Modern Threats, 49 The Urban Lawyer 355 (2017)

Szypszak, C. and Roscoe, E. Registers’ Public Records in the Digital Era, UNC School of Government Land Records Bulletin #34 (Nov. 2010)

Charles Szypszak joined the School of Government in 2005. Prior to that, he was a director of a general practice firm in New Hampshire, where he provided counsel and advocacy for real estate and business matters. He provides counsel to state, national, and international institutions, organizations, and public officials on real property registration and conveyance laws. In the School’s master of public administration program, he teaches the introduction to law course and an elective on military leadership and public service, and he teaches an introduction to legal thinking course in the University’s undergraduate curriculum. He also teaches internationally, including in Poland and Lithuania, twice on a Fulbright award. He has been awarded the University’s J. Carlysle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award and the School’s Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Teaching Excellence Award. He was an adjunct professor of law at Franklin Pierce Law Center, a law clerk for Circuit Judge Hugh Bownes on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and a captain in the US Marine Corps. Szypszak earned a BA from the University of Southern California, an MA from San Diego State University, and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Selected Publications

Books

The Law of Municipal Streets and Utility Easements in North Carolina (School of Government, UNC Chapel Hill 2019)

North Carolina Guidebook for Registers of Deeds (School of Government, UNC Chapel Hill, 2016 and supplements)

Military Leadership Lessons for Public Service (McFarland 2016)

Real Estate and North Carolina Law: A Resident’s Primer (School of Government, UNC Chapel Hill 2012)

Understanding Law for Public Administration (Jones & Bartlett 2009)

Eminent Domain for North Carolina Local Governments, Law and Practice (School of Government, UNC Chapel Hill 2008)

Real Estate (NH Practice Series) (LexisNexis, 2003 and annual supplements)

Articles

Privacy and Public Real Estate Records: Preserving Legacy System Reliability Against Modem Threats, 49 Urban Lawyer 355 (2017) (with E. Roscoe)

Local Government Registers of Deeds and the Enduring Reliance on Common Sense Judgment in a Technocratic Tide, 44 Real Estate Law Journal 351 (2015)

Socratic Method for the Right Reasons in the Right Way: Lessons from Teaching Legal Analysis Beyond the American Law School, 11 Journal of Political Science Education 358 (2015)

Property Rights, Public Records, and Risk of Loss in the United States Real Estate Recording System, 14 Ukrainian Commercial Law 88 (2015)

Teaching Law in Public Affairs Education: Synthesizing Political Theory, Decision Making, and Responsibility, 17 Journal of Public Affairs Education 483 (2011)

Just Compensation, Claims for Lost Business Profits, and Income Valuation of Real Property, Journal of the Polish Real Estate Scientific Society 81 (2010)

Ten Common Misconceptions about Eminent Domain, 71 Popular Government 43 (2009)

Real Estate Records, the Captive Public, and Opportunities for the Public Good, 43 Gonzaga Law Review 5 (2008)

North Carolina’s Real Estate Recording Laws: The Ghost of 1885, 28 North Carolina Central Law Journal 199 (2006)

Public Registries and Private Solutions: An Evolving American Real Estate Conveyance Regime, 24 Whittier Law Review 663 (2003)

Beyond the Rule of Law, 45 New Hampshire Bar Journal (Winter 2005), at 46

Property Law Reform in Russia, 44 New Hampshire Bar Journal (June 2003), at 13

Trying the Real Estate Case, 14 Practical Real Estate Lawyer 69 (1998)

Uncertainty in War and Litigation, Trial Magazine (May 1996), at 73

The Protection, Salvage, and Preservation of Underwater Cultural Resources in the Chesapeake Bay, 4 Virginia Journal of Natural Resources Law 373 (1985)

Kara Millonzi joined the School of Government in 2006. She specializes in local government finance law, general county law, school finance, utilities finance, development finance, and incorporation. She administers the Coates’ Canons Local Government Law Blog and has authored well over 100 posts on issues related to local government law and finance. Millonzi also administers NC Finance Connect, an online community portal, centered around the topic of local government finance. She has authored numerous publications, including A Guide to Billing and Collecting Public Enterprise Utility Fees for Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Services, Introduction to Local Government Finance (4th edition), and The Governance and Funding Structure of North Carolina Public Schools. She teaches several core finance courses and directs the NC County Attorneys Conference and Fundamentals Workshop and Local Government Finance Officers Conference each year. (A complete list of Kara’s blogs, courses, publications, and other resources are located under the corresponding tabs on this page.)

Millonzi is the lead faculty for Lead for North Carolina, a fellowship program that aims to recruit, train, and place the state’s most promising young leaders in paid local government fellowships as a means of strengthening our public institutions, supporting our local communities, and cultivating a new generation of public service leaders. Before joining the School, Millonzi practiced law with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP in Boston and clerked for the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer, United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Millonzi earned a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University at Buffalo and an M.A. in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park. She earned a J.D., with highest honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as editor in chief of the North Carolina Law Review.

Selected Publications

Millonzi, Kara. 2018. Introduction to Local Government Finance (4th ed). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government.

Millonzi, Kara. 2008. A Guide to Billing and Collecting Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Utilities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government.

Coates Canons Local Government Law Blog.

Ana-Laura Diaz works as an attorney. Recently, she has been serving as transactional counsel at a tier-one research institution and reviewing a variety of agreements. In addition, Ms. Diaz teaches legal and ethics courses. Her work focuses on the areas in which business, the law, and ethics intersect. Ms. Diaz’s past experience spans the public and private sectors, including positions at a renewable energy company, the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer, USAID, and private practice. She earned her bachelor’s degree and M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her J.D. from the University of Miami.