National Law Firm Established to Handle Mortgage Fraud Cases
Kristin Campbell | 10.03.06
A new national law firm, The American Mortgage Law Group, has been established to focus exclusively on the needs of the mortgage banking industry, founder Arthur Prieston announced Monday.
The mortgage banking attorneys at Lanahan & Reilly, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based law firm, are now handling mortgage banking cases for American MLG. James Brody and Ryan Thomas, partners in the new firm, are responsible for recovering millions of dollars in cash on behalf of clients. Novato, Calif.-based American MLG will work closely with The Prieston Group, a provider of mortgage fraud insurance, training and loss mitigation, to recover monies on behalf of its clients, and will also serve companies who are not clients of TPG. Mortgage fraud is likely to be a large concern for most clients, says Prieston.
The Prieston Group had previously worked with Lanahan & Reilley for its loss mitigation efforts on behalf of clients and continues to maintain counsel relationships with the firm. The only difference now is that all future Lanahan & Reilley work that is related to mortgage banking will be referred to American MLG. The new firm intends to move from being a regional law firm to a firm with a national presence and the ability to handle cases across the country through relationships with local counsel in hot spot areas for mortgage fraud.
Jon Daurio, former co-founder of Encore Credit Corp. will also lend his expertise to the new firm. Daurio is a mortgage banker and a former managing partner of OâConnor, Schmeltzer, Armstrong & Watkins, a law firm in Irvine, Calif.
Kirk Smith, president of SouthStar Funding, says that a national law firm dedicated to fraud cases will help eliminate âinefficiencies and confusionâ that come as a result of a client having to contract with multiple firms for representation.
âMortgage fraud is a national phenomenon and having one central place to turn to for representation is desirable for most lenders especially with the myriad of state lending laws and regulations that our industry is subject to,â Smith said.
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