Managing A Legal Department in Challenging Times and Other Hot Topics

1
Managing A Legal Department in Challenging Times
and Other Hot Topics

• Use and Deployment of In-House Resources
• Randal Shields
• Associate General Counsel
• Bank of America
• May 6, 2009

2
So Many Factors Changing
Foreclosures
Survival
Bankruptcy
Losses
Assignee liability
Legislation
Fair lending
Regulation
FFIEC/TDRs
Litigation
TARP/HASP
Fraud
Modifications
Nationalization
Affordability
3
Philosophy/Leadership

• Ideological Direction
• Technician
• Strategic Partner
• Wise Counselor
• Strategic Planning/Goals
• Big Rocks
• Trust
• Foster collaboration/teamwork, not competition
• Communication
• Approachability
• Set challenges

4
Putting the Team Together

• Hire for attitude, as well as skill set
• Motivation and drive
• Hard work
• Follow-up skills
• Ability to engender client confidence
• Good communicators
• Interpersonal skills
• Low maintenance
• Ethics and Values
• Ongoing training

5
Managing the Volume

• Control the things you can control
• Meetings/calendars
• Use paralegals and assistants
• Rely on outside counsel
• Leverage associations
• Set practice groups
• Dotted line reporting
• Push back to the business
• Project management resources
• Partner with risk/compliance resources
• Assign responsibilities
• Issue laptops
• Do not sacrifice accuracy for speed

6
Key Functional Alignments

• Losses/Loss mitigation/FC avoidance
• Fraud
• Information management
• Privacy
• FCRA/FACT Act
• Data breaches
• Do not solicit
• Regulators/Regulations
• Litigation/Claims
• Sales and Marketing
• Fair lending

7
Generally Good Practices

• Connect the dots
• Return phone calls
• Dont just manage up
• Fairness
• Remember innovation
• Courage/feedback
• Show empathy
• Celebrate