Bankruptcy Compliance & Consumer Bankruptcy Litigation

Bradley’s compliance and regulatory lawyers partner with in-house legal departments, default servicing management and operational staff at financial institutions helping them navigate the current bankruptcy regulatory environment. Our team includes lawyers that have served extended periods as temporary in-house bankruptcy counsel to various clients, including a Fortune 100 financial institution and one of the nation’s leading mortgage servicers.

Additionally, nearly all the members of our team have spent significant time on-site with our financial services clients, fully immersed in their bankruptcy departments and systems of record, working closely with key bankruptcy personnel to address the wide-ranging issues facing bankruptcy departments.

As trusted legal counsel, we bring our deep experience and informed perspective to helping clients avoid potential statutory or regulatory violations by addressing bankruptcy compliance and consumer financial protection issues proactively while keeping in mind the limitations on our clients’ financial, human, and IT resources. Our preventive measures eliminate or minimize litigation, financial repercussions, and other disruptions to our clients’ businesses.  

To ensure compliance with the Bankruptcy Code provisions, Bankruptcy Rules, local rules, administrative orders, and servicing standards established by federal and state regulators, Bradley attorneys:

• Conduct risk assessments to determine potential gaps in client bankruptcy practices
• Draft or revise bankruptcy-focused policies, procedures, user manuals, process flows, jurisdictional guidance, quality control and assurance measures, training materials, and borrower correspondence 
• Evaluate the compliance of third-party vendors providing bankruptcy services
• Design and implement bankruptcy-related remediation projects to address prior compliance deficiencies
• Conduct in-house training on various bankruptcy areas, such as “Bankruptcy 101,” best practices on common documents including Proofs of Claim, Motions for Relief from Stay, and Notices of Payment Change, and proper redaction methods
• Respond to formal and informal requests for information from federal and state regulators and United States Trustees
• Assist clients in negotiating the bankruptcy provisions of consent orders
• Advise clients on the bankruptcy aspects of testing metrics under existing consent orders
• Advocate for clients by preparing comments to potential regulatory changes affecting bankruptcy
• Advise clients in managing bankruptcy litigation portfolios

Our consumer bankruptcy litigation team represents financial services clients in numerous states, effectively containing their legal spend by guiding them through potential outcomes and helping them choose their battles wisely under the specific circumstances of each case. We understand the desire to resolve matters quickly when appropriate.

Through our deep bankruptcy experience and grasp of the relevant facts in each case, we often are able to negotiate early resolutions with opposing counsel. When an early resolution is not feasible, we zealously represent our clients’ positions before the bankruptcy court while containing costs as much as possible.

Matters we handle include:

• Stay and discharge violations
• Plan violations
• Claim objections
• Lien priority and avoidance
• Nondischargeability
• Fraudulent and preferential transfers
• Consumer protection issues related to bankruptcy, including FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, RESPA, TILA, UDAAP, and state statutes