by Brian Mahany
Lawyers that profited from the halcyon days of the housing industry are now finding themselves on the other side of the law. Several lawyers have been sued for their role in the mortgage crisis and many more are likely to find themselves in jail or in court.
We have long suspected that lawyers were behind many of the frauds and scams cooked up by Wall Street. No large lender does anything without a phalanx of high priced lawyers behind the scenes. Normally, only the client can sue a lawyer for bad advice but several recent settlements and suits mark a new trend of using securities laws as a platform to sue lawyers for aiding and abetting fraud.
Two giant firms are now settling charges that they aided and abetted an alleged multi million dollar Ponzi scheme involving mortgage loans. Miami based Greenberg Taurig will pay $88 million and Milwaukee based Quarles & Brady seeks to settle by paying $26 million. Both firms deny wrongdoing.
We know several lawyers at Quarles & Brady, all of whom are fine lawyers. The lesson here is that one bad apple or a little too much greed can land any firm in hot water. Third parties suing lawyers for their losses normally doesn’t win as the lawyer’s duty traditionally extends only to the client and not others but these cases show that trend may be changing.
The lawyers at Greenberg and Quarles are accused of covering up or turning a blind eye. Of course, there are many truly disreputable lawyers involved in the foreclosure process who have been accused of forging documents and covering up problems in the lender’s foreclosure documents. Hopefully we will see more cases against these people including lengthy prison stays. Attorneys take an oath of office to support the Constitution and laws of the state in which they practice. Forging documents or turning a blind eye to documents they know are forged should be an automatic ticket to being disbarred.
The public is already wary of lawyer. Unfortunately with some of the foreclosure tactics we have seen that attitude is quite understandable.
If you feel that you were the victim of a predatory foreclosure or a dishonest lawyer, give us a call. Our firm sues lenders and lawyers for their role in the foreclosure crisis that has paralyzed our economy. For more information contact attorney Anthony Dietz at . Have an immediate problem that can’t wait? Contact the author, attorney Brian Mahany at or by telephone at (414) 704-6731 (direct). All inquiries are kept in strict confidence.
Mahany & Ertl – America’s Fraud Lawyers. Offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Portland, Maine & Minneapolis, Minnesota. Services available in many jurisdictions.