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Folks & O’Connor
is an Arizona law firm that limits its practice almost exclusively to
representing banks and other lending institutions concerning consumer
and commercial foreclosure, loss mitigation, bankruptcy, eviction,
creditors’ rights collection litigation cases, loan workouts and certain
real estate related matters. The firm’s current client list includes
many national and regional banks located in the Southwest and several
mortgage servicers.
Folks & O’Connor
is keenly interested in participating in bank and mortgage servicer
Designated Counsel Programs to provide legal services concerning
residential mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction and REO closing
cases in Arizona. This summary is intended by Folks & O’Connor to supply
bank and mortgage servicer officers with background information and
documents to evaluate our firm’s law practice and qualifications and
feel confident in making a decision to add the firm as participant in
your firm’s Designated Counsel Program.
Folks &
O’Connor’s offices at 1850 N. Central Ave., Suite 1140, Phoenix, Arizona
85004, is the only location where our firm
handles Arizona foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction and REO closing cases.
Larry O. Folks and
Eugene F. O’Connor II, supported by four
associate attorneys, are responsible
for managing the foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction and REO cases in the
Phoenix office.
Larry O. Folks
•
See Larry Folks' itemized biography
Managing member
Larry Folks is our lead residential
mortgage foreclosure, loss mitigation,
bankruptcy, eviction and
litigation attorney. He would be your company’s primary contact. He is a
Certified Bankruptcy Specialist (Arizona Board of Legal Specialization
and American Board of Certification). He and his staff represent clients
concerning a full range of non-judicial and judicial foreclosure legal
services in every county of Arizona.
Mr. Folks is the
Chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the State Bar of Arizona for
2009-2010, a member of the Executive Council of the Bankruptcy Section,
a court-appointed panel mediator of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in and for
the District of Arizona and has been an active member of the Arizona
bankruptcy bar for more than 20 years. He also serves as a judge pro
tem of the Superior Court of Arizona in and for the County of
Maricopa. In addition, he has been a foreclosure trustee for many years,
is a member of the Arizona Trustee’s Association and a member of
American Legal & Financial Network (ALFN). He is a 1988 graduate of the
Northwestern University School of Law and was admitted to practice law
in Arizona on October 21, 1988.
His practice has
always been limited almost exclusively to representing banks, the RTC
and other institutional lenders concerning credits ranging from small
dollar consumer loans on a volume basis to multi-million dollar loans in
bankruptcy proceedings, non-judicial and judicial foreclosures,
creditors’ rights litigation, eviction litigation and loan workouts.
Since the mid-1990s, Mr. Folks has successfully represented
clients in more than 10,000 Arizona residential foreclosures and
bankruptcy cases.
Before
co-founding Folks & O'Connor, Mr. Folks was a partner of the national
law firm Kutak Rock LLP and, for many years, chaired that firm's Arizona
bankruptcy and foreclosure department. For several years that firm's
national team of foreclosure and bankruptcy attorneys represented The
Associates and other major lenders on a very
high-volume basis concerning residential mortgage foreclosures and bankruptcy
cases.
In the late
1990s, Mr. Folks dedicated approximately half of his law practice to
real estate transactional matters. During that time he participated in
and was responsible for closing many sophisticated commercial real
estate transactions related to representing a REIT that extended
securitized construction, equipment and real estate loans to fast-food
franchisees to acquire, construct, sell and lease-back and refinance
Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Chili’s and other restaurants
nationwide. He also has closed many residential real estate transactions
for banks primarily in the context of deed-in-lieu, loan workout and REO
sale transactions over the years.
Eugene F. O’Connor II
•
See Gene O'Connor's itemized biography
Gene O'Connor has
over two decades of significant experience in
foreclosure,
bankruptcy, eviction,
creditors’ rights litigation and
loan workouts. For the nine years prior to co-founding Folks & O’Connor,
he was a First Vice President and Associate General Counsel of JPMorgan
Chase Bank, NA (formerly Bank One) and was in charge of all of the
bank's middle-market and large-market bankruptcy and loan workout cases
in Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
Mr. O'Connor
began his legal career at a large Wall Street law firm, where he worked
on major bankruptcy cases, including the Texaco bankruptcy. For eight
years he was an associate in the Bankruptcy & Restructuring Department
of Arizona's largest law firm, Snell & Wilmer, LLP, where he represented
lenders concerning most of the major Arizona bankruptcies filed.
He was admitted
to practice law in Arizona on October 22, 1994.
Associate Attorneys
Lisa Kass is a senior associate
with significant experience in representing residential mortgage lenders
in consumer bankruptcy,
foreclosure and eviction cases. She has
worked directly for Mr. Folks since 2000. Ms. Kass would represent your
firm in bankruptcy, excess foreclosure sale proceeds actions and
eviction cases. Ms. Kass is a 1996 graduate of the John Marshall Law
School and was a member of The John Marshall Law Review. She was
admitted to practice law in Arizona in 2001.
Another senior
associate, Kathleen Weber, also
has significant experience in foreclosure,
bankruptcy,
creditors’ rights and complex
civil litigation matters. The 1994 graduate of Creighton University
School of Law was an associate at the national law firm Kutak Rock LLP
for five years, practicing in the bankruptcy and real estate
departments. Ms. Weber would represent your firm concerning foreclosure,
bankruptcy, eviction cases and REO closing cases. She was admitted to
practice law in Arizona in 1994.
Jessica Laginess, a member of
the State Bar of Arizona and the State Bar of California, focuses her
practice on post-judgment collections, mortgage deficiency and
creditors' right litigation. She earned her law degree at the Sandra Day
O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2005 after
graduating cum laude from the University of Michigan.
Paralegals
-
Carmen Ruff,
who joined Folks & O’Connor in 2008, is one of the most experienced
foreclosure paralegals in the State of Arizona, with more than 20
years of paralegal experience specific to foreclosures and title
issues. For several years she worked for Arizona’s largest
foreclosure firm where, as a primary paralegal team leader, she was
responsible for thousands of foreclosures. She also worked in the
trustee's sale guaranty department of Security Title.
-
Jennifer
Menges has more than 12 years of experience in conducting
non-judicial foreclosure sales, senior lien bidding and applying for
excess foreclosure sale proceeds in Arizona. Before joining Folks &
O’Connor, Ms. Menges was a foreclosure specialist at a high-volume
Arizona foreclosure law firm. In that capacity, she was responsible
for processing approximately 300 non-judicial foreclosure sale files
per month for FHA, VA, FNMA and a number of private banking clients.
Ms. Menges was also the manager of the foreclosure department of a
local title company. Ms. Menges is the firm’s resident expert and
has particular expertise with specialized foreclosure tracking and
reporting systems, including Lenstar, Vendorscape and NewTrack (FIS
Default Solutions). Ms. Menges has obtained a certification
concerning completing REO loan closings.
-
Kathlyn Maez
has been a bankruptcy paralegal for more than 15 years and is a
licensed real estate agent. She has extensive experience in
representing banks in Chapter 7, 11 and 13 matters involving
residential mortgage and auto loan secured claims. She worked in the
Chase Bank bankruptcy department for several years to monitor
bankruptcy filings and work with outside bankruptcy legal counsel in
all 50 states. Ms. Maez' real estate experience is a valuable asset
in REO closings.
-
Sara Sanchez
is a highly experienced paralegal with about ten years of experience
in bankruptcy, eviction, foreclosure and mortgage deficiency
litigation matters. For many years she served as the executive
assistant to the managing partner of a major foreclosure law firm
and his primary associate; together they processed thousands of
foreclosures annually and had a high-volume residential mortgage
bankruptcy and eviction practice.
-
Tina Sedlock,
a full-time billing assistant, has extensive
experience with a wide range of electronic billing and reporting
programs, including iClear, DataCert, Examen and NewInvoice.
Folks & O’Connor
completes all of the legal services for foreclosure, bankruptcy,
eviction and REO closings referred to our firm with the following
limited exceptions:
-
We use the
services of a licensed and bonded bidding firm, to cry out and credit
bid at our foreclosure sales scheduled outside of Maricopa County,
Arizona. We hold all Maricopa County sales at our Phoenix office and
complete those sales without any assistance.
-
We will
occasionally retain local counsel to attend eviction hearings in outlying counties, but that it is a fairly rare. Usually, we can handle
these hearings by telephonic appearances, but occasionally we will
retain qualified local counsel.
THOffice. Folks & O’Connor
uses a sophisticated foreclosure tracking program, THOffice, that
is popular among several high-volume foreclosure firms in
Arizona. The paralegals input the data to commence the foreclosure sale
process which then results in THOffice generating the required
foreclosure documents and an automated timeline that includes all of
the statutory milestone deadlines required by Arizona foreclosure law.
The system also includes “to do” prompts on a daily basis to ensure that
no deadlines are missed and allows the paralegals to make notes
concerning the progress of cases. Certain information related to our
pending sales input into THOffice may be accessed on-line.
TimeMatters.
Folks & O’Connor
uses the TimeMatters software program to docket and track its mortgage
deficiency, bankruptcy and eviction cases. The system allows the
attorneys and paralegals to input information concerning each case and
it includes “to do” prompts for milestone events during the case.
Other Systems.
Our firm’s
employees are trained and have significant experience in using client
required electronic reporting systems such as VendorScape, iClear,
NewTrack and NewInvoice and certain other electronic client required
tracking and reporting systems. There is no question that we have the capability
to adapt to any reporting or billing requirements of your firm.
Section II describes the qualifications of the attorneys of the
firm. Please note the following additional information:
-
The firm,
Larry Folks and Gene O’Connor are
AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell.
-
The firm
is a member of the:
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Mr. Folks
has been a Certified Bankruptcy Specialist for more than 15 years
(certifications by the Arizona Board of Legal Specialization
and the American Board of Certification).
-
Mr. Folks
is the chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the State Bar
of Arizona for 2009-2010 and is a long-time member of the Section's Executive Council.
-
Mr. Folks
is a member of the Arizona Board of Legal Specialization, which oversees the
approval of certified specialists by the State Bar of Arizona.
-
Mr. Folks
is a court-appointed panel Mediator of the United States Bankruptcy
Court in and for the District of Arizona.
-
For the past
three years, Mr. Folks has been a judge pro tem of the Superior Court
of Arizona in and for the County of Maricopa.
-
Mr. Folks
has spoken at a number of bankruptcy and foreclosure seminars. During
2008, he was the primary speaker at the following two seminars:
-
"Nuts and Bolts
of Bankruptcy Mediation," U.S.
Bankruptcy Court, District Of Arizona (May 14, 2008)
-
"Arizona Mortgage Deficiency Litigation,"
State Bar of Arizona Convention (June 19, 2008)
VI.
OTHER INFORMATION
Upon request,
Folks & O’Connor will supply client references and the following
additional documents in support of its request to be evaluated to
perform legal services for your firm:
-
Certificate of Professional Liability Insurance
-
Firm
brochure, including attorney biographies
-
Employee
Policies and Procedures Handbook addendum describing the firm’s timeframes for foreclosure, bankruptcy and eviction
referrals
-
Catalogue
of foreclosure, eviction, bankruptcy, collection and creditors’ rights
legal services offered by the firm
-
Memorandum
describing the firm’s computer network
-
Copies of
the 2007, 2010 and 2011 Southwest Super Lawyers®, which lists Mr. Folks as one of the
top bankruptcy attorneys in Arizona
-
Letter
confirming Mr. Folks’ reappointment as a judge pro tem of the
Superior Court of Arizona
-
Letter
confirming Mr. Folks’ AV Rating by Martindale-Hubbell
-
Certificate confirming Folks & O’Connor’s current membership in the
Arizona Trustee Association
-
Letter
confirming Folks & O’Connor’s current membership in the American Legal
and Financial Network (AFN)
-
Letter
confirming Mr. Folks’ certification as a specialist in business bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification
-
Certificate confirming Mr. Folks’
certification as a bankruptcy specialist by the State Bar of Arizona
-
Letters of recommendation from sitting
bankruptcy judges, the then-chairman of the Bankruptcy Section of the State Bar of Arizona, and
several banking clients in support of Mr. Folks’ professional abilities.
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