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Jeff Weisserman is a managing partner and general counsel of Trott Law, P.C., a Farmington Hills, Michigan-based real estate finance law firm. In this role, Jeff is responsible for helping drive and measure the strategic development of firm goals, as well as cultivating and maintaining new client relationships. He is active in legislative affairs relating to the mortgage industry and has testified before various legislative committees regarding real property legislation. He is a frequent speaker on issues relating to litigation and the mortgage banking industry and has authored numerous materials on the industry. Trott Law is a member of the Legal League 100. Jeff recently talked with DS News about the positives that firms can draw from increased regulation that requires more attention to compliance.
What has been one of the biggest changes in the industry that you've had to deal with?
The biggest change in our world has been compliance. There are more and more rules and regulations set for us by governmental and non-governmental entities that change the way we do things. We spend a lot of human and financial resources to comply, because it is important for us to be at the top of the class in compliance. We spend a lot of time and money "doing it right." When something changes, you have to spend even more time doing it right.
For years, I have told the story about a gentleman we hired five or six years ago to help me out in my role as general counsel here. We weren't sure it was going to be a full-time job. We weren't sure if we were going to have enough work to keep him busy. Next thing you knew, he was heading up an entire compliance team and overseeing all the compliance and audits. That tells you how much the world has changed in the last five or six years.
This is not a complaint. It is the new reality, and there are some positives that come up with all of the audits and compliance. I'm an optimistic guy, and I think there are some good parts about compliance and the ever-present audits and things of that sort. I think we sometimes forget that.
What are some examples of positives that have come from devoting more resources to compliance?
We’ve learned to be better business people. For us, it's critical to be an A student on these things. I think we've done a good job with staying at the top of the curve when it comes to compliance. One of the good things about the constant audits is that we get to show our clients how dedicated we are to continuous improvement, high-quality work, and deep-rooted integrity. We hear that a lot from our clients when they come in. They tell us, "Wow, you've really done it right." The last thing we would want to do is spend a lot of time and money becoming compliant and not having anyone know about it. It allows our clients to see how committed we are to being the most compliant firm, and I think it pays off.
Back when the robo-signing crisis hit, I went back to the Winston Churchill quote, "Let's not waste a good crisis.” Let's use the opportunity to examine our processes and see what we can make better. So every time someone comes in and looks at us, we get to see someone looking at us with fresh eyes. Every once in a while they say, "Why DO you do it that way?" The worst answer someone can give when asked that question is, "Because we always have." They've taught us to look at it with a more critical perspective. Because of the compliance and audits, every so often we get to tweak the process and make it better. It allows us to examine the way we do business and sometimes put in some implementations that are better.
Where do see the compliance issue headed for the future? Is it going to get tougher, or easier, or is it going to be the same as it is now in a year or two?
It's never going away, and that's good. My hope is that it levels off a bit just so it can become more business as usual without added recipes to put into the cake. I don't think it's going to get smaller, but hopefully it won't grow too much.
Michigan has consistently ranked high among states in foreclosure volume. Do you see that situation improving?
Michigan’s foreclosure volume has actually dropped significantly in the last few years. I think part of that is a function of the improving economy, as well as lenders/servicers continuing to work with borrowers on loss mitigation strategies. With respect to related litigation, it is pretty tough to predict, because you never know if there's going to be some hot new issue that pops up (like the MERS cases two or three years ago). Hopefully something like that won't happen.
What are you hoping for in the immediate future for the default servicing industry?
My mantra for the calendar year of 2015 is "Some change is bad." We've had so many changes to the foreclosure world in our business that a year where we can catch our breath and not have a lot of system-wide changes would be a good one. It doesn't mean we don't want to change. Dynamic change is good. It's just that we'd like to spend more time doing the business we do best, which is providing superior default servicing legal services to our clients.
