Subprime Lending Litigation, Investigations and Restructuring
The subprime mortgage crisis has evolved into a Wall Street maelstrom. Economic “deleveraging” has rippled into every sector of the credit markets. Each day the scope of this financial crisis seems to expand. With the subprime collapse has come heightened regulatory scrutiny and litigation. The Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, state attorneys general and other regulators are investigating the lending industry in record numbers. Related civil lawsuits and restructurings are being filed at an increasing rate.
Integrated Practice Team
Baker Hostetler's Subprime Litigation Practice Team can help, whether the challenge is strictly subprime mortgage-related or related to the broader credit markets. We take a multidisciplinary approach, and harness the extensive experience of attorneys in key practice areas.
Our integrated team provides the benefits of in-depth knowledge of a broad-range of relevant laws and regulations. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this continually evolving practice, which requires a firm grasp of the intersection of law and business.
Our lawyers are well-versed at addressing complex subprime issues, drawing upon specific skill sets across practices—from financial services experience to litigation and regulatory considerations to bankruptcy proceedings—to provide clients with comprehensive, integrated solutions to subprime litigation problems.
Geographic Reach
Our 11 offices nationwide provide the geographic reach needed to serve in diverse markets, and our firm is particularly strong in the subprime hot spots:
- California
- Florida
- Ohio
- New York
- Washington, DC
Selected Current Cases
- Defense in federal court of an international bank in a municipal lawsuit alleging numerous financial institutions created a public nuisance through business practices purportedly causing home mortgage defaults and foreclosures in a major city suffering from home mortgage defaults. Damages claimed include decreased property values.
- Defense in federal court of two alleged class actions asserting Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and state consumer sales practices act claims arising from foreclosures in a state hard-hit by subprime mortgage foreclosures. Plaintiffs claim, among other things, that the defendant banks made false statements about their banks' ownership of the notes in question because they were not recorded prior to suit.
- Representation of major creditors in the largest subprime bankruptcies across the nation, including representation of the Chair of the Official Creditors' Committee.
- Defense of a class action against a subprime mortgage servicer arising from contested foreclosures in a subprime hot spot.
- Defense in federal court of the trustee of more than 20 securitized home mortgage loan pools or trusts against disappointed investors' claims of misrepresentation and other torts. Plaintiffs claim damages in the form of lost collateral value and excessive servicing fees.
Our experienced Subprime Litigation Team can help with the defense of consumer, shareholder, and ERISA-based class actions, regulatory and criminal investigations, and other subprime-related legal challenges. The same experience can be brought to bear in litigation related to other disputes arising out of the disarray in credit markets, including other securitized credit and investments.
About Baker Hostetler's Litigation Team
When the stakes are bet-the-company monetary damages, potential criminal sentences and intense scrutiny in the court of public opinion, the 200-plus litigators of Baker Hostetler are a team to depend on. We have the kind of credentials you expect from a leading national litigation firm and a client base we have protected in and out of court for decades.
What really sets us apart is our practical experience as trial lawyers. The Baker Hostetler team includes former top prosecutors of the U.S. Justice Department (four of whom received the Attorney General's Distinguished Services Award), former prosecutors for major municipalities, veteran civil trial attorneys and enforcement officials from various federal agencies, from the Department of Energy to the SEC and NASD (now FINRA).