Photo of Michael E. Lacy

Michael heads the firm’s Consumer Financial Services practice, and handles class actions and high-stakes consumer litigation on a nationwide basis. He represents banks, mortgage servicers, debt buyers and collectors, and lenders against claims under consumer protection statutes, including the FCRA, TCPA, RESPA, RICO, and state UDAP laws. He has significant experience litigating and trying corporate governance disputes, including shareholder derivative claims, corporate dissolution cases, and corporate divorce matters. Michael also represents public utility companies in litigation and regulatory matters, including condemnation and land use cases.

Please join Troutman Pepper Partners Chris Willis and Michael Lacy for a special inside look at our annual publication of the Consumer Financial Services Year in Review and Look Ahead. In our eighth year of publishing this annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry, our team has prepared a thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends across 17 consumer protection areas. For the first time, we are rolling out both webinars and podcasts on select topics to not only provide more in-depth coverage of 2023 events, but also let you know what we expect in 2024. This material will be beneficial to in-house counsel, compliance managers, regulators, and anyone in the consumer financial services space who wants to stay ahead of the curve.

Effective September 1, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) has finally updated its Commercial Rules and Mediation Procedures, concluding a two-year internal review. The amendments provide greater procedural discretion to arbitrators, further streamline expedited arbitrations, change the amount-in-controversy requirements for certain arbitration paths, and provide express confidentiality protections, among other things.

First, the amended

In Cadence Bank, N.A. v. Roy J. Elizondo III, PLLC, the Supreme Court of Texas recently held that an administrative form relied upon by a victim of a fraud scam did not impose contractual obligations on a bank to verify available funds before processing the wire transaction.

A Texas lawyer maintained an IOLTA deposit

On March 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) unveiled an enormous change to its fair lending philosophy that will have major ramifications for financial services providers of all types. In a press release, the CFPB announced that it will begin targeting discrimination as an unfair practice under its unfair, deceptive, and

On July 22, U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross awarded summary judgment to a plaintiff who brought suit under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). The victory, however, could be Pyrrhic. Over the course of 20 months of litigation, what began as a five-count purported class action was whittled down to one individual claim that

On March 22, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) moved to dismiss a challenge to a final rule it promulgated last summer. But this routine filing was followed by a blog that expressed the Bureau’s intent to address the challenged rule outside of court and clarified that its “brief address[es] only the court’s jurisdiction to

2020 was a transformative year for the consumer financial services world. As we navigate an unprecedented volume of industry regulation, Troutman Pepper is uniquely positioned to help its clients find successful resolutions and stay ahead of the compliance curve.

In this report, we share developments in 2020 on consumer class actions, background screening, bankruptcy,

Troutman Pepper represented the defendant/appellee in Wanda Daughtry, et al v. Jeffrey Nadel, a case in which the appellants argued that a foreclosure action filed six years after the borrowers defaulted was time-barred. The case concerned whether Maryland’s default three-year statute of limitations for “actions at law” applied to a foreclosure action. The Court

Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton officially became Troutman Pepper (Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP) today, a national law firm of 1,100 attorneys in 23 U.S. offices. Our new firm offers clients greater resources and bench strength, enhanced practices, and expanded geographical reach.

We are now one of the 50 largest law firms in the country,

Overview

Earlier this week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule intended to “make it easier for consumers with urgent financial needs to obtain access to mortgage credit more quickly in the middle of the [coronavirus] COVID-19 pandemic.” The rule clarifies how the right of consumers to waive certain protections provided in the