DS News

14 Richard Nielson manages compliance, information technology, and the Kentucky operations for Reimer Law Co. Nielson received his B.A. from Northern Kentucky University in 1989, and his J.D. from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at NKU in 1993. He is licensed to practice law in Kentucky and Ohio. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky, and the Southern District of Ohio. Upon graduating from law school, Nielson founded the law firm of Nielson & Sherry, PSC. From 1993 to 2017, the firm grew to be- come one of the leading creditor's rights firms in Kentucky. In early 2017, the firm made the strategic decision to merge with Reimer Law Co. based in Solon, Ohio. Nielson spoke to DS News about the chal- lenges that servicers face, how technology is impacting the industry, and best practices for compliance. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THAT ARE FACING SERVICERS AND LAW FIRMS SO FAR THROUGH 2019? For the most part, default referral volumes have been down across the board for law firms. We're seeing some rebound on that, but it has caused default firms across the country to re-examine business operations to see how they can gain more efficiencies in the process and deal with other issues related to a lower referral market. Lower volumes have caused many firms, including ours, to begin offering services in additional states. For example, Reimer Law recently expanded into West Virginia. As a firm, we also continue to expand into other practice areas related to real estate and lending. We have seen growth of our litiga- tion, general collections, and auto and other chattel bankruptcy and replevin matters. It has been critical for us to go into new markets and diversify the firm overall to make sure that we don't have all our eggs in one basket. HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE EXAMINATION, OR THE COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS, OF EXPANDING INTO ANOTHER STATE? ere are two approaches to that. ere's the opportunity-based approach, where a firm might get approached by another firm to merge with them. A lot of the times, those mergers aren't geographically contiguous. We have not taken that approach. Instead we have chosen to look at geographically con- tiguous states for expansion possibilities. We will only expand into markets that make sense for us within our regional footprint. We're not interested in opening in Puerto Rico, for example. So, West Virginia was a perfect fit for us. It is contiguous to both Ohio and Ken- tucky, and in general, the laws and customs are somewhat similar. We continue to look for other regional opportunities that might make sense for the firm long term. Much of the expansion decision is client driven. As volumes have gone down, the clients are also looking to economize on their compliance departments, their audit depart- ments, and their attorney-management issues in general. As a result, many are looking to reduce the number of law firms they retain nationwide. For us, the decision to expand into West Virginia was driven mostly by client requests, because West Virginia volumes are small, relative to what other states see. We had multiple clients asking us to get in there simply because it alleviates some of their audit issues. ey only stop once to audit a firm handling multiple states. is reduces their costs and administrative burden. "e most dangerous thing about cybersecurity issues and fraud issues is the human interaction. So, your weakest link is your weakest employee." COUNSEL'S CORNER LEARNING LESSONS FROM DIVERSE COURT CASES Richard Nielson Managing Shareholder, Reimer Law Co.

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