Posted by Lee Sigelman on April 29, 2008 12:11 PM|Permalink
Comments
As a practicing attorney for over 50 years, I am curious as to how the legal profession accommodated and abetted the subprime mortgage market in conjunction with the investment bankers. Back in the old days, while the attorney representing the mortgagee bank had no direct (or legally even indirect?) responsibility to the mortgagor, such attorney did serve somewhat as gatekeeper because a great extent of the bank's risk was also the mortgagor's risk. With the subprime mortgage, the attorney knowing that the bank would be promptly bundling and selling its mortgage might be tempted to cut corners, including with respect to traditional title searches. And then there were the attorneys representing the investment bankers. Did all of these attorneys serve as traditional gatekeepers or did they consider cost/benefit factors for failing the traditional role of attorneys? Or were the fees too generous to pass up?
Comments
As a practicing attorney for over 50 years, I am curious as to how the legal profession accommodated and abetted the subprime mortgage market in conjunction with the investment bankers. Back in the old days, while the attorney representing the mortgagee bank had no direct (or legally even indirect?) responsibility to the mortgagor, such attorney did serve somewhat as gatekeeper because a great extent of the bank's risk was also the mortgagor's risk. With the subprime mortgage, the attorney knowing that the bank would be promptly bundling and selling its mortgage might be tempted to cut corners, including with respect to traditional title searches. And then there were the attorneys representing the investment bankers. Did all of these attorneys serve as traditional gatekeepers or did they consider cost/benefit factors for failing the traditional role of attorneys? Or were the fees too generous to pass up?
Posted by: Shag from Brookline | April 30, 2008 07:29 AM
Good questions. I'm curious, too, and I surely don't have the answers. Can someone else weigh in on this?
Posted by: Lee Sigelman | April 30, 2008 08:38 AM
Leave it to the British to summarize 10 years of American stupidity in 10 minutes of dry wit.
Posted by: Matt Jarvis | April 30, 2008 02:30 PM