• Regulatory Compliance

Let us help you navigate the tangled web of federal and state laws and regulations that may impact your business. Our Co-Managing Partner Richard Horn led the final TRID rule when he was a Senior Counsel and Special Advisor at the CFPB and has deep knowledge of the TRID rule, the policies behind the rule’s many requirements and the forms, and how the regulators may interpret the rule. We handle a myriad of different matters involving federal and state laws, including:

• TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures Rule (TRID): compliance questions, investor disputes, training

• Fair lending: redlining, reverse redlining, appraisal discrimination, pricing disparities, disparate treatment, compliance reviews

• HMDA

• Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage Rule

• Loan-level federal and state regulatory compliance questions on any federal or state consumer financial services issues

• Loan Originator Compensation (LO Comp) and Wage and Hour laws

• 50-state surveys on various state laws

• RESPA Section 8: JVs, partnerships, and other business arrangements, such as Marketing Services Agreements (MSAs), desk rentals, online marketplace issues

• Fair credit reporting questions

• Privacy and data security

• Anonymous inquiries to federal and state regulators (i.e., inquiries that do not identify the client)

• FHA/Fannie/Freddie/Ginnie Approvals and Guidance

• Compliance Management Systems

• Fraud

  • Government Enforcement and Investigations

    You’ve received a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”), subpoena, a Potential Action and Request for Response letter (“PARR Letter”), or a notice of investigation. You need assistance with examination information request or responding to examiner questions. We are ready to help you work through the process of responding and understanding the risks. We have assisted many banks and non-bank companies with responding to investigations and examinations. Many times we have helped clients avoid lawsuits or other enforcement actions. If the government does initiate a lawsuit or other enforcement action, our litigation team stands ready to defend you, and advise you about the risks as the litigation progresses. Because of our deep knowledge of consumer financial services regulation, we can think of potential defenses other law firms cannot. We represent clients who are in active litigation against the government, and have also successfully settled many enforcement actions for our clients.

    We also help clients conduct internal investigations, including in instances of fraud, compliance deficiencies, and other extraordinary events.

    We are also the only consumer financial services regulatory law firm to successfully defend against a federal government redlining lawsuit, winning a motion to dismiss in the CFPB’s Townstone Financial lawsuit.

  • State Licensing

    Our team has worked on various state licensing projects for our clients. We have conducted fifty-state surveys on a myriad of issues regarding state licensing; conducted de novo state licensing projects; changes of control filing projects; and other licensing projects. We can also augment your own licensing staff by providing legal experience or conducting inquiries to regulators anonymously (i.e., without identifying you). If you have a state licensing issue or project that requires the knowledge or experience of an attorney to advise the licensing team, our team is ready to help you.

  • Document Compliance, Preparation and Reviews

    If you have a need for a custom mortgage note, rider, security instrument, or other documents, our team stands ready to help. Our partner Melanie Feliciano is a former chief legal officer at one of the nation’s largest mortgage document and compliance software companies, and has vast experience with both document and compliance issues. Melanie and the rest of our team can bring its varied experience to bear to answer the multitude of compliance questions that may come up when creating document and disclosure sets for various proprietary or new loan products. We can also analyze the compliance of your disclosures and documents that are provided to consumers during the origination and servicing of residential mortgage loans.