Jim is hired to defend mortgage lenders and mortgage servicers against fair lending claims under Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act (FHA). Jim also routinely defends mortgage lenders, mortgage investors, mortgage servicers and other debt collectors from federal consumer claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and from state predatory lending claims and consumer fraud claims. Jim represents clients in the Midwest and in other parts of the country on a pro hac vice basis. Jim regularly provides litigation strategy counseling to mortgage lenders and mortgage servicers defending consumer claims in litigation throughout the United States, working together with clients’ local counsel.
Jim has substantial appellate practice experience. Jim successfully represented clients before the Illinois Supreme Court and before multiple federal circuit courts and state appellate courts. Jim has also served as amicus curiae counsel in cases with financial industry-wide importance.
Jim is the author of the Statutory Overview of the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Practice, Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) (2016), co-author of Residential Real Estate Foreclosure: Plaintiff-Lender’s Case, IICLE (2016).
Jim was a Panel Member of the Law Ed series on Federal Court foreclosure practice. Jim was a member of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois’ drafting committee on federal foreclosure forms and a member of the court appointed Advisory Committee on Cook County Sheriff’s eviction procedures. Jim has testified before the Illinois House of Representatives Consumer Protection sub-committee on foreclosure practice and procedure. Jim also served on the American Legal and Financial Network (ALFN) board from 2009 to 2015. Jim chaired its sub-committee on Federal Consumer Lending Statutes, Commercial Foreclosures, and Amicus counsel. Jim has also participated in several panel discussions on ethical considerations affecting attorneys and their clients in the banking and mortgage servicing field.