DS News - U.S. Bank

10 Matthew Podmenik has received an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbell, ranking at the highest level of professional excellence for legal knowledge, communication skills, and ethical standards. Podmenik has authored articles involving lenders' rights for the California Real Property Law Reporter, Legal League 100 Quarterly, California Mortgage Finance News, and the United Trustee Association. Podmenik is admitted to practice in the state of California; the U.S. District Court in the Eastern, Central, Northern, and Southern Districts of California; the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He spoke to DS News about the trends and challenges currently facing financial services firms and servicers. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PRIMARY CHALLENGES FACING SERVICERS AND LAW FIRMS IN 2019? One of the biggest issues for all of us is the continuing change in the legislative environment, nuanced state law requirements, and the need for servicers to have firms that are leveraged to be able to track these legislative updates and provide timely and substantive of updates. Lower inventory is an issue for everybody as well. YOUR FIRM WON A MAJOR LEGAL VICTORY EARLIER THIS YEAR WITH OBDUSKEY V. MCCARTHY HOLTHUS. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER CASES THE INDUSTRY SHOULD BE KEEPING AN EYE ON? It's an exciting time for the industry. We will see an increased number of cases out there that will, hopefully, be helpful to us following the McCarthy & Holthus decision. e next logical step will be a case where they try to apply the ruling to a judicial foreclosure—in particular, a judicial foreclosure that is not seeking a deficiency. Reading the tea leaves, I would expect a favorable result on that, which I think would be a huge win for the entire industry. ere are also other Fair Debt Col- lection Practices Act (FDCPA) cases out there. ere's the Klemm case that's with the Supreme Court, which deals with the statute of limitations. e primary question for the court is whether the SOL begins to run when the plaintiff discovers the alleged error or does the SOL start to run from the date of the oc- currence. If it is the later, it could significantly reduce the cost to litigate FDCPA cases. It's a significant case that would affect everyone from Maine to California. It will also be inter- esting to watch the evolution of the McCarthy & Holthus case. What will the next challenges be? What will be covered by the case? Where might a state legislature try to amend the state's debt collection law to provide different relief to borrowers or consumers? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STATES POTENTIALLY SETTING UP THEIR OWN VERSIONS OF THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU? In my opinion, I believe our industry is as highly regulated as any and there isn't a need for additional regulations. I understand the desire for local governments to take affirmative action to assist their constituents. However, it is often lost how difficult it is to manage any process on a national level when there are national, state, county, and city-specific regulations. With that said, I think this is inevitable and might have already happened in Pennsylvania. is is just another example of state-specific changes that are likely to come in the next year. "We will see an increased number of cases out there that will, hopefully, be helpful to us following the Obduskey decision. e next logical step will be a case where they try to apply the ruling to a judicial foreclosure—in particular, a judicial foreclosure that is not seeking a deficiency. Reading the tea leaves, I would expect a favorable result on that, which I think would be a huge win for the entire industry." COUNSEL'S CORNER LEARNING LESSONS FROM DIVERSE COURT CASES Matt Podmenik General Counsel & Managing Partner, McCarthy Holthus, LLP

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