Real Estate & Property Law

Foreclosure Is Upwardly Mobile: More of the Wealthy Lose High-End Vegas Homes

It isn’t just members of the working class who are struggling to stay on top of their mortgage payments. A growing number of multimillion-dollar homes in Las Vegas are in foreclosure or being marketed as short sales, in which the lender eats the difference between what was paid the last…

Apr 26, 2011 5:25 PM CDT

Mass. High Court Upholds Role of Lawyers Before, During and After Real Estate Closings

Massachusetts’ top court has partly sided with lawyers in a turf battle between the real-estate bar and a Pittsburgh mortgage service company. In a ruling on Monday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said ethics rules require “substantive participation” by lawyers in real-estate closings, the Boston Globe reports. Just showing up…

Apr 26, 2011 1:39 PM CDT

Suit Says Ben-Ezra Law Firm Was In Network Paying Kickbacks for Foreclosure Cases

Updated: A Florida woman has filed a federal suit against a Fort Lauderdale law firm known for its mortgage foreclosure work on behalf of lenders, contending that Ben-Ezra & Katz was part of a network of firms paying kickbacks to a foreclosure processing company to obtain legal work. The alleged…

Apr 25, 2011 5:45 PM CDT

Lawyer, Ex-Mortgage Broker Husband Charged in Alleged $8.8M Mortgage Fraud Racketeering Conspiracy

A Tampa., Fla., lawyer and her husband, who is a former mortgage broker, are being held in lieu of $700,000 bail in the Hillsborough County jail after being arrested earlier this week in an alleged $8.8 million mortgage fraud conspiracy in which other defendants also have been charged. Stephanie Bolton…

Apr 22, 2011 5:41 PM CDT

Federal Jury Acquits Fla. Real Estate Closing Attorney in $7.8M Mortgage Fraud Case

A 55-year-old Florida real estate lawyer was acquitted of 13 counts of bank fraud yesterday when a federal jury in Miami apparently agreed with the defense that Eve Rosen was unaware of the $7.8 million scheme allegedly orchestrated by a Broward County developer. Prosecutors called Rosen, who served as closing…

Apr 22, 2011 4:35 PM CDT

Judge Must Decide If Toy Store’s Giant Purple Octopus Mural is Regulated By Sign Ordinance

Suffice it to say that some in Walla Walla, Wash., are not fans of a giant cartoon-like mural featuring a purple octopus that is painted on the facade of a toy store building. But is the depiction a sign or a work of art protected by the First Amendment? That…

Apr 21, 2011 4:45 PM CDT

Banking Landlord May Push Milbank Out of Its Manhattan Offices

Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy may be kicked out of its Manhattan offices by landlord JPMorgan Chase when the law firm’s lease ends in 2013 because the bank reportedly wants more space for itself. Milbank is said to be scouring New York for new digs, but there aren’t a lot of…

Apr 21, 2011 12:13 PM CDT

Graffiti Exhibit in LA Is Magnet for Taggers and Cops; At Least One Famous Street Artist Detained

An exhibit of graffiti at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is intended to bring public attention to what some view as exciting—albeit illegal in a number of settings—and cutting-edge works. But in a development that museum officials say they anticipated, the exhibit has apparently drawn some of…

Apr 20, 2011 6:35 PM CDT

Finally, a Big Fish: Federal Jury Convicts Taylor Bean Mortgage Co. Owner Farkas in $3B Fraud

In a rare major fraud case brought in connection with the nation’s financial crisis, the government has won a conviction. A federal jury in Alexandria, Va., today convicted Lee Farkas, the chairman and majority owner of a major Florida-based mortgage company, on all 14 counts concerning a fraud scheme that…

Apr 19, 2011 11:20 PM CDT

NY Lawyers Locked in Lease Dispute Over Mansion Office

Herbert M. Siegel and Dennis Alan Kahn enjoyed a 30-year partnership at Siegel, Kelleher & Kahn, one of the best known law firms in Buffalo, N.Y. But now the family law attorney and plaintiff lawyer are locked in landlord-tenant litigation, involving a historic Victorian mansion Siegel rents to the firm.…

Apr 15, 2011 2:56 PM CDT

Andrews Kurth Sued for Malpractice

A former client this week sued Andrews Kurth for malpractice, alleging that while the law firm was working on a building lease negotiation that ultimately failed, the firm also represented the other party in a separate matter. Walton Houston Galleria Office, which is part of Chicago-based Walton Street Capital, filed…

Apr 14, 2011 10:26 PM CDT

Federal Regulators, 14 Large Lenders Agree to Settlement re Mishandled Mortgage Foreclosures

Federal regulators and more than a dozen of the nation’s biggest mortgage servicers announced yesterday that they have reached a settlement over what reportedly have been widespread shoddy practices related to mortgage foreclosures. The lenders, which include some of the country’s biggest banks, will pay restitution to homeowners for the…

Apr 14, 2011 11:24 AM CDT

Bankruptcy Judge to Sanction Lender Processing Services in Mortgage Foreclosure Case

A federal bankruptcy judge in New Orleans has granted a U.S. Trustee’s motion for sanctions concerning its conduct in a mortgage foreclosure case. At issue are what Judge Elizabeth Magner.concluded in an April 7 opinion to be false testimony and a “sham” affidavit provided by Lender Processing Services, reports Reuters.…

Apr 14, 2011 10:57 AM CDT

Ex-Lawyer and Lawmaker Convicted with 3 Others in Mortgage Fraud; Jury Hangs re Attorney-Rabbi

An 82-year-old former lawyer and state representative has been convicted by a federal jury in Hartford, along with three other defendants, of participating in a mortgage fraud scheme. It involved some $10 million in mortgage money obtained on dozens of Connecticut homes in transactions involving shady sellers, straw buyers, fraudulently…

Apr 13, 2011 2:48 PM CDT

Suit Says NY Gov’t Lawyer Earned $1M from Nixon Peabody, Seeks to Force Restitution to State

A government attorney in New York was paid nearly $1 million by Nixon Peabody over more than a decade as the law firm defended his county in land-claim litigation brought by the Oneida Indian Nation, giving him a disincentive to settle, a new lawsuit contends. Filed by George Carpinello of…

Apr 12, 2011 6:01 PM CDT