Richard Stevens and Gerald Roach Leading Top Universities in Nation as Board of Trustee Chairs

With the recent appointment of attorney Richard Stevens as chair of the Board of Trustees for UNC-Chapel Hill and attorney Gerald Roach serving as chair of the Board of Trustees for Wake Forest University, Smith Anderson attorneys are now the chairmen of two of the nation’s top 30 universities, both of which are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Service and support of higher education in North Carolina continues to be matters of importance for attorneys at the firm.

UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University play significant roles in our state’s economic growth engine and the shaping of the marketplace stemming from each school’s technology transfer/commercialization efforts and research and development. Over the years, Richard and Gerald have demonstrated their commitment to community and public service and to the success of our state’s future through various leadership roles within professional, community and public organizations, and they look forward to helping strengthen and shape our state’s economy through their leadership roles at these two universities.

With two Board of Trustee chairs, several other Smith Anderson attorneys serving as members of university and college boards, and the firm’s extensive network of higher education clients, Smith Anderson is uniquely positioned to understand the issues impacting public and private institutions of higher education. The firm regularly represents educational institutions on a broad array of legal matters, including: board governance, litigation, athletics, investigations, employment and joint ventures. Additionally, technology attorneys at Smith Anderson regularly work with university spinouts in licensing and commercializing the foundational technology developed at the universities.

This is Richard’s second time leading the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees – he was first elected as chairman when he served from 1995 to 2003. Richard joined Smith Anderson in September 2012, focusing his practice on government relations after serving as a Senator in the North Carolina General Assembly since 2003. Before stepping down from this role, he was ranked as the Senate’s third most effective member, according to a survey by the nonpartisan North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. 

Gerald is the Managing Partner of Smith Anderson and served as chair of the firm's Policy and Planning Committee for 15 years. Gerald’s practice involves domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate governance matters, public company securities, private financings, technology law, and advising boards of directors and special committees. He regularly represents public and private growth companies and private equity firms with their general corporate needs and domestic and international transactions.