2013 Legal Elite winner: Bankruptcy - TRAWICK H. "BUZZY" STUBBS, Stubbs & Perdue PA, New Bern

2013 Legal Elite winner: Business - GRAYSON S. HALE, Morningstar Law Group, Morrisville

2013 Legal Elite winner: Construction - RICHARD CONNER, Conner Gwyn Schenck PLLC, Greensboro

2013 Legal Elite winner: Corporate Counsel - ROBERT WICKER, General Parts International Inc., Raleigh

Free & Clear: Unwieldy and expensive, the public university's role as all things to all people relies on a combination of guild monopoly, political power and public awe.

Capital Goods: Pat McCrory supports charter schools, but he has been hesitant to embrace controversial parts of the right's education agenda, such as vouchers for private schools.

2012 — North Carolina's year in bloopers.

2013 Legal Elite winner: Criminal - PETER C. ANDERSON, Beveridge & Diamond PC, Charlotte

2013 Legal Elite winner: Employment - W. RANDALL LOFTIS JR., Constangy, Brooks & Smith LLP, Winston-Salem

2013 Legal Elite winner: Environmental - GRADY L. SHIELDS, Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh

2013 Legal Elite winner: Family - STAN BROWN, Hamilton Stephens Steele & Martin PLLC, Charlotte

2013 Legal Elite winner: Intellectual Property - ANTHONY BILLER, Coats & Bennett PLLC, Cary

2013 Legal Elite winner: Litigation - LEE M. WHITMAN, Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh

2013 Legal Elite winner: Real Estate - ROBERT CHARLES LAWSON, Williams Mullen, Raleigh

2013 Legal Elite winner: Tax / Estate Planning - ANDREW H. VEACH, Edwards Craver Veach PLLC, Winston-Salem

2013 Legal Elite winner: Young Guns (Best Under 40) - GEORGE MASON OLIVER, Oliver Friesen Cheek PLLC, New Bern

Capital Goods: North Carolina has borrowed $2.7 billion from the federal government for unemployment benefits. Now, the money has to be repaid.

Cover story: House Speaker Thom Tillis is North Carolina's most focused free-market legislative leader in a long time — maybe ever.

Leading up to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, the host committee kept saying fundraising was “right on track.” But somewhere along the line it ran off the rails.