As regulation of the consumer financial services industry expands and evolves, lenders, servicers and other businesses in the industry can expect to be closely scrutinized by federal and state regulators, the courts, and the plaintiffs’ bar. The risk of disputes and enforcement actions has never been greater.
To effectively navigate this new landscape you need counsel that regularly tracks and informs clients about the latest industry developments and is further able to work through complex compliance issues as they arise. Our national consumer financial services industry team is composed of business, regulatory, and litigation attorneys handling regulatory compliance, financial services and commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and white collar criminal defense and government investigations for the country’s largest financial institutions, lenders, and servicers.
How We Can Help
Regulatory Compliance and the CFPB
Our regulatory compliance group regularly assists clients in the development of internal policies and procedures needed to minimize non-compliance risk exposure involving:
- Mortgage origination and servicing
- Loan originator compensation
- Ability-to-Repay (“ATR”) / Qualified Mortgage (“QM”) compliance
- Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing (“SAFE”) Act concerns
- FinTech and emerging payment products
- Consumer privacy protection
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), the Electric Funds Transfer Act (“EFTA”), the CARD Act, and the SAFE Act
- Fair lending and fair servicing issues, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and its implementing Regulation B, HMDA and its implementing Regulation C, and the Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”)
Our regulatory compliance team also has significant experience defending and resolving enforcement actions filed by state and federal regulators; assisting clients with licensing and registration issues; pursuing no-action requests on behalf of clients; assisting clients in preparing comments to proposed rules; and responding to consumer complaints, rescission demands, Requests for Information, Notices of Error, and other inquiries from consumers.
This group also counsels clients in regard to inquiries, investigations, and audits by government agencies; conducts internal investigations; and performs gap analyses to strategically assist in the process.
Consumer Financial Services Litigation
Our litigators successfully defend national and regional consumer lending and servicing clients in class action and single plaintiff lawsuits across numerous state and federal courts, including appellate courts and the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Consumer and class action defense
- Securities class action defense
- High-risk jury trials and appeals
- Creditor representation in bankruptcy matters including Chapter 11 and bankruptcy adversary cases
- Federal lending law claims (FCRA, TCPA, RESPA, FDCPA, TILA, HOEPA, ECOA, FACTA, FCCPA, CROA)
- State law deceptive/unfair practice claims
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”)
- Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
- Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (“UDAP”)
- Predatory lending practices
- Title disputes and title insurance coverage disputes
- Consumer fraud
- Military lending
- Business purpose loans
- Automobile finance
- Student lending
- Federal loan modification programs
- State consumer protection laws
- National mortgage settlement
- Actions on tax liens, homeowners association liens, and condominium association liens
- California Homeowner Bill of Rights (“HBOR”)
- Federal and state COVID-19 relief bills and moratoriums
- Privacy, data, and cybersecurity issues
Title Curative
- Title claims
- Correcting legal description errors
- Resolving chain of title and other vesting issues
- Negotiating and obtaining releases and subordination of prior mortgages, judgments, tax liens, and homeowners association and condo owners association liens
Transactional
We solve problems that arise in the relationships among lenders, servicers, brokers, investors, and government sponsored enterprises (“GSEs”). Our work includes merger and acquisition and portfolio sale transactions in the mortgage and other consumer finance industries as well as experience evaluating, structuring, and documenting subservicing agreements, and consumer credit products and services, including mortgage loans, consumer leases, motor vehicle loans and leases, and other retail installment sale programs.
Our team routinely assists bank and non-bank lenders and loan servicers in drafting, negotiating and exiting their contracts with various service providers and vendors in order to help manage and mitigate their third-party risk. We also have considerable experience pursuing and defending repurchase claims involving private investors and GSEs.
What Sets Us Apart
We strive to create true business partnerships with our clients to enable us to better assist them in identifying, considering, and pursuing all options that best suit each individual client’s needs and business goals. We work closely with our clients to deliver legal services in the most effective and cost-efficient manner, and to structure our relationship and representation in ways that closely coordinate with each individual client’s business model. Our team consists of experienced attorneys and other professionals dedicated to helping our clients anticipate and avoid problematic issues, and to effectively address these issues when they do arise.
