Schneiderman & Sherman, PC expands to Include Office in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCHNEIDERMAN & SHERMAN, PC EXPANDS FOOTPRINT

Schneiderman & Sherman, PC Expands to Include Office in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area.

FARMINGTON HILLS (January 19, 2024) — Schneiderman & Sherman, PC (SSPC), a leading provider of mortgage and creditor’s rights legal services, announced the opening of their newest office location in Minnesota, located at 1602 Selby Ave., # 8, St. Paul, MN 55104. The location is set to service the entire State of Minnesota and supports their expanding regional market presence.

The new Minnesota office marks SSPC’s first law office outside of the State of Michigan. Sherman Holdings Group, parent company to SSPC, has significant experience managing a multi-state footprint as its other subsidiary, Best Homes Title Agency (BHT) has 9 offices and is licensed in 13 states.

The new St. Paul office is fully operational as of November 1, 2023. “We are thrilled about this next chapter in our firm’s story. The St. Paul location will allow the firm to provide additional legal services to our expanding client base, supported by our 30 years of history in the non-judicial, default legal services space,” said Operations Manager, Renee O’Donnell.

About Schneiderman & Sherman P.C.
Schneiderman & Sherman P.C. (SSPC) is a full-service real estate law firm founded in 1996 and headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. SSPC is a member of the USFN, Legal League and ALFN and a long-standing advocate for the mortgage servicing community. SSPC’s mission is to provide clients with access to the most creative, cost-effective solutions for their various legal issues.

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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Neil Sherman at 248.419.4572 or email NSherman@sspclegal.com

SSPC President, Neil Sherman, Moderates Panel at Five Star Conference in Dallas

Written and Published by MReport

As the industry continues to make great strides in terms of diversity and inclusion, Legal League tackled key issues in that arena head on during a lively panel discussion titled, “Diversifying Legal Practice in Real Estate: Embracing Our Default Legal Expertise and Expanding to the Larger Real Estate Ecosystem.”

Moderated by Neil Sherman, President of Schneiderman & Sherman, PC, the panel featured Stavvy’s Chief Product Officer Shane Hartzler; Senior Partner Kent McPhail of McPhail Sanchez, LLC; and Michael Waldron, President of Compliability Solutions. The diversification panel keyed in on transitive properties of default professionals’ experiences to the legal areas of origination and real estate ancillary services. And as technology continues to evolve in the default servicing space, the panel discussed how to leverage advanced solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI), to remain competitive and provide superior client services.

For more details about the panel, please click here.

Participants in the "Diversifying Legal Practice in Real Estate: Embracing Our Default Legal Expertise and Expanding to the Larger Real Estate Ecosystem" panel included Shane Hartzler, Michael Waldron, Kent McPhail, and Neil Sherman, who served as moderator of the panel

Schneiderman & Sherman Selected as Newest Member to USFN

FARMINGTON HILLS (August 5, 2021) — Schneiderman & Sherman, P.C. (SSPC), a leading law firm in mortgage lending, announce that they have been selected as the newest member of USFN. USFN is a trade organization representing America’s mortgage banking attorneys. USFN Member Firms meet the highest industry standards in their practice, actively participate in their state and local bar associations and mortgage finance industry organizations, as well as fully participate in USFN seminars, publications, and other activities.

“Applying for USFN membership is an extensive application and vetting process for applicants. It is experienced, reputable firms like Schneiderman & Sherman who have demonstrated success that ultimately become America’s Mortgage Banking Attorneys. We are delighted to welcome Schneiderman & Sherman as a new USFN member,” said Pamela L. Donahoo, CAE, USFN CEO.

"We are thrilled to have been accepted to USFN, and look forward to working with the organization and its members to lead the mortgage lending industry" said Neil Sherman, Esq., President and Managing Partner of SSPC. "We know the importance of being active in our industry, and know that USFN will give us the opportunity to help shape the present and future with the other leaders in the group."

Neil Sherman, Esq. feat. in Counsel’s Corner - Learning Lessions From Diverse Court Cases

Written and Published by DS News

In addition to his role at the Michigan-based firm of Schneiderman & Sherman, PC, Neil Sherman is also the President of Best Homes Title Agency, based in Michigan and licensed in 12 states. Sherman is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of both companies and has over 18 years’ experience representing the mortgage servicing and investing community in the areas of foreclosure, bankruptcy, asset recovery, mediation, title curative, and REO conveyance. 

 Sherman is also the past Chairperson and current Advisory Board Member for the Legal League 100, a consortium of default servicing law firms, which advocate on behalf of its membership and the industry at large. 

Sherman recently spoke with DS News about the possibility of an impending recession, technological changes in the industry, and what can be done to combat fraud. 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON A POSSIBLE RECESSION IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

As usual, none of us have a crystal ball. We do the best we can to anticipate things by looking at metrics. But in reality, our job today is to operate in the environment we’re in, to be the best partners that we can be, the best legal services providers we can be, while also preparing for the future. And how we prepare for that future is through additional training of our people, cross-training, and investment in technology. 

I have practiced in our space for almost 20 years. It was clear that when the Great Recession hit, the entire industry was not prepared for the volume and the operational and legal complexities that came with it. There has been an incredible evolution over the last number of years as our industry has developed better technology, tremendous efficiencies and new pathways throughout the default process. 

We have also seen a significant amount of consolidation in both the bank and non-bank servicing space, the technology vendor space as well as legal services providers. As a result of the significant decrease in overall default volume, the consolidation and general aging patterns in our industry, the great recession is starting to be a period that many read about but did not live through. 

That is a concern moving forward as it is imperative that as our economy slows we don’t relive some of our industry’s greatest mistakes. The solution is truly quite simple: education, participation, and implementation. We cannot wait until the last minute to invest in our default operations. Right now default departments are lean and have the ability to implement new strategies. As volumes increase, it will become a far greater challenge. 

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST HURDLES THE INDUSTRY HAS SEEN IN COMBATING FRAUD?

Our weak link, when it comes to fraud prevention, at the end of the day, is people and education. Our job is to educate everybody on our teams about the possible risks associated with fraud. 

There is no simple fix in the area of fraud prevention. If there were, some of the greatest minds in technology and at our Fortune 500 partners would have already solved it. The Federal Trade Commission, through the Consumer Sentinel Network, a group that tracks consumer fraud and identity theft, reported three million fraud complaints in 2018. 

Our continued reliance on convenience technology such as smartphones and other mobile devices and expectations of ever increasing efficiency has impacted the growing fraud issues we are encountering. If you are working at a feverish pace and lack substantial fraud prevention training, simple, every day emails or tasks that pose risk of identity theft or fraud may be missed. I think that the industry needs to continue investing in education internally. Fraud prevention cannot be a “gotcha” form of education alone. We try and tell a story when it comes to teaching our team about fraud prevention. We bring in speakers, provide presentations along with conducting internal penetration testing. We also highlight how everything we learn about fraud and identity theft prevention can be applied at home with our families. 

From an industry standpoint, as custodians of our customers’ personal and sensitive information, we have a responsibility to share our knowledge in the field with the consumer. We need to do so, not in boilerplate legalese, but rather through informative brochures, videos, and other educational opportunities. 

WHAT ARE THE NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS THAT ARE CHANGING THE WAY YOU DO BUSINESS?

A lot of the technology that we’re implementing today, we’re implementing for multiple reasons. Some of it is for streamlining processes, some of it for overall efficiency, some of it is for fraud protection. The reality of the environment that we’re working in today is that we have to be incredibly protective of all the information that is being transmitted back and forth. We do that through the education of our people. We do that through the implementation of technology. 

WHY ARE INDUSTRY EVENTS THAT FACILITATE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDERS SO IMPORTANT?

We are obviously operating today in a low-volume environment, and more and more we are seeing individuals that don't have a history, or sense of history, of where we came from during the Great Recession. That is concerning because at some point—again, no crystal ball—we will enter an environment of increasing default work again. Our industry is concerned, both on the legal side, the servicing side, and the vendor side, with the preparedness of those individuals. And how we can prepare them is through education and participating in things like the Legal League 100, and the Five Star Institute events, and that’s why they are so imperative for our growth as an industry. 

There is a real sense of collaboration. There is an understanding of the state of the industry, from all the parties involved, and an eagerness for everybody to work together, not only for the environment we’re in, but for the environment that eventually we will be in. 

View Pages from the DS News publication here: http://bit.ly/NeilSherman-DSNews-feature