Practice Areas
Consumer Financial Services Regulation
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
Litigation
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Business disputes happen. They can take many forms, including:
• Someone might accuse a member, shareholder, or manager of your company of using his/her position for personal gain.
• A former employee might steal your trade secrets or walk away with your confidential information and take these to a competitor.
• A franchisor might accuse you, the franchisee, of violating your franchise agreement.
• A franchisee might accuse you, the franchisor, of violating state registration and disclosure laws.We have dealt with many different business disputes, including:
• Corporate shareholder disputes
• Breach of contract
• Unfair competition
• Unauthorized use of trade secrets
• Violations of non-compete provisions
• Antitrust
• Commercial fraud
• Tortious interference with contract
• Franchising issuesIf you find your company in any stage of a dispute, you’ll need an experienced and dedicated law firm that will both know how to win, but also work to understand your business. We will work to understand the importance of every step of your case. We will strive to gain every advantage and win battles at each juncture, from the initial filing of documents through discovery and trial. We have have battled big and medium-sized law firms in high-stakes litigation. Our strategies, meticulous preparation, and ultimately, our victories have led to successful outcomes for our clients.
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Our firm stands ready to assist you with any consumer financial services litigation matters, including servicing issues, loan officer and application poaching matters, TRID liability questions, private fair lending lawsuits, and any other potential or actual litigation issues.
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Our firm has successfully resolved a multitude of mortgage loan repurchase and litigation cases that involve complex mortgage fraud schemes, as well as large-scale repurchase and/or make-whole disputes. We successfully navigate the legal issues that arise during and through loan originations, loan purchase sales, loan securitizations, foreclosures, bankruptcy actions, and repurchase and indemnification claims.
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Business partnerships, much like marriages, can hit rough patches. Sometimes, business partners develop irreconcilable differences on a wide range of issues, from how to run the business, who to pay and how much, and how much and what kind of work each partner should do.
Partnership disputes can happen when, for example:
• Business owners strongly disagree on how to interpret their partnership, shareholder, or operating agreements.
• Minority partners believe that majority partners are being unfair or treating them unfairly.
• A managing partner is careless or negligent, acts in their personal best interest instead of the best interest of the company, or violate their legal and ethical obligations.If you and your business partner or partners need help with an amicable solution, need a court or arbitrator to resolve your differences, or want to end your business relationship, we can help. Our litigation partner David Ross has decades of experience dealing with all manners of partnership disputes.
FinTech
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We understand that advising FinTech companies requires an in-depth knowledge of the underlying legal compliance issues, but also real, practical experience with the technology issues involved. Many FinTech matters involve complex privacy and data security problems, strategic concerns, and other issues. We also understand the challenges and cost concerns of start-up companies. Our partners include former chief legal officers of technology companies and FinTech entrepreneurs. For example, our partner John Levonick has years of experience launching of digital products and services, deploying secure cloud infrastructures, and supporting global technology companies within the heavily regulated U.S. financial markets, as both outside and in-house counsel. We stand ready to advise you on all FinTech related issues.
Transactional / Corporate
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Our M&A attorneys advise buyers, sellers and investors in a variety of business combination transactions, recapitalizations, and acquisitions in a heavy regulated environment. Transactions generally range from closely held companies in small and mid-market deals with regional players to large companies doing business nationwide.
We handle M&A deals at all stages, including non-disclosure agreements, letters of intent and term sheets, due diligence, definitive deal documents, and related work. Our transactional advice and drafting encompasses business law and strategy, ancillary stockholder and equity arrangements for executives and related employment, consulting, non-compete, licensing, and business franchise arrangements. We leverage our firm’s business acumen and decades of experience in highly regulated industries. -
We regularly set up new business entities, draft and negotiate commercial contracts, and provide transactional advice and assistance at all stages of the business process.
Franchise Law
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Your franchise is too important to trust to just any business attorney. Franchise law is unique and nuanced. Too often, we hear of a franchisor or a franchisee whose attorney has lost a case because “they didn’t know what they didn’t know.”
Garris Horn’s litigation partner, David G. Ross, has more than 20 years of experience in franchise law. Whether you are a potential new franchisee evaluating an opportunity, an actual franchisee embroiled in a dispute with your franchisor, or a franchisor working hard to comply with complex registration and disclosure requirements, we can help.
Franchise-Related Negotiations, Contracts, and Disclosures
• Preparation of franchise disclosure documents (FDDs) and related contracts
• Review of FDDs for potential franchisees
• Advice and representation before and during a sale of the business
• Review, drafting, and negotiation of franchise-specific buy-sell agreements and asset purchase agreements
• Advice on franchisor compliance issues -
Not every business lawyer is a franchise lawyer, and not every franchise lawyer is a franchise litigator.
David G. Ross, our experienced franchise litigator, is both. Dave has represented franchisees in lawsuits and arbitrations against some of the nation’s largest and most powerful hotel, restaurant, fitness, and retail franchisors. He has also represented franchisors who have been accused by state governmental agencies of violating local laws.
We can help with disputes over:
• Breach of contract
• Franchise termination and non-renewal
• Protected territories
• Franchisor fraud and misrepresentation
• Restrictive covenants or non-competes
• Misappropriation of trade secrets
• Violation of antitrust laws
• Violation of franchise registration and disclosure statutes
Training
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Our firm provides training to companies and individuals on all different consumer finance regulatory compliance areas, including:
• TRID
• Fair Lending
• RESPA Section 8Our co-managing partner Richard Horn has conducted half and full-day live and virtual TRID, RESPA, and Fair Lending training sessions across the country. Richard and our other partners have conducted training covering other topics as well.
Outside General or Regulatory Counsel
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We regularly act as external “in-house” general and regulatory counsel to companies in the mortgage banking arena. Our attorneys can be engaged on secondments and on a flat fee basis. Our partners includes former in-house counsel at the largest companies in the mortgage and technology industries. These partners include:
• Melanie Feliciano, a former Chief Legal Officer at a nationwide document and compliance software company
• John Levonick, former senior Chief Executive Officer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at large secondary mortgage market companies and a nationwide financial services company, and
• Raymond Snytsheuvel, a former Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at a nationwide non-bank mortgage and installment lender
Our firm can offer reasonable alternative billing arrangements for such engagements.