DS News

81 was a confluence of a significant number of parties with a large interest. You had openly hostile creditors and counsel who were litigious from the first day of the case. You had a creditors' committee who were fulfilling their fiduciary obligations by monitoring everything, but that also meant a large amount of scrutiny. You had the office of the United States Trustee, the watchdog of the bankruptcy process, who was justifiably skeptical at the outset of the case. But, throughout the case, Mark and Rod came to the hearings. ey filed the schedules. For long periods of time, they weren't getting payments for their salary, or if they were, they were significantly reduced." "It took a lot of effort to make sure that my default banking clients got all their money back, but every single one of them got all their money back," Wittstadt continued. It took Wittstadt and his remaining staff the better part of a year to finish reconciling the escrow accounts and ensuring all those who were owed money back were addressed. Wittstadt told DS News that, during this stressful and emotionally draining time period, he often turned back to lessons he learned from his father—who had served as a lawyer and then later as a judge—to help push him forward. "He instilled in us that we have an ethical obligation to our clients," Wittstadt said. "It's immaterial to your representation of your clients to allow your personal issues to interfere with your obligations to your clients. at's what I believed, and I continue to believe that today." THE AFTERMATH (AND A NEW BEGINNING) In September 2016, Wittstadt's day-to- day obligations to the firm were finalized, and oversight of the bankruptcy was passed on to the liquidating trustee. Along with a couple of employees he had remaining, Wittstadt launched LTX Companies, as well as shifting focus to the firm he founded with his brother, Wittstadt and Wittstadt. In the years that followed, Wittstadt got back to work, representing clients doing real estate closings, title abstracting work, real estate litigation, and other related matters. After having overseen an organization of around 700 employees, Wittstadt now has just under a dozen on his payroll. It was good, honest work, but Wittstadt recalls a sense of restlessness. "In this life, you only have two choices: you fight for your spot in the sandbox, or you pick up your toys and you go home," he said. "I'm 54 years old today, but I'm not ready to pack up my toys and go home. I want my space back. I want my spot back." Time passed, as it does. In February 2019, Hardwick was finally sentenced, closing the door on the saga of MHS and LandCastle Title, but for the wounds left behind and a once successful business brought down by malfeasance. But, as we spoke to Wittstadt in the fall of 2019, there was a new light on the horizon. In 2018, Wittstadt began returning to the sort of industry events he'd avoided for a while, including the Five Star Conference and Expo and some MBA events. He began discussing possible paths back into the default industry where he felt his skills would best be served. In late 2019, those discussions bore fruit with the announcement that Wittstadt would be serving Of Counsel for the firm of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Wittstadt will assist with the firm's clients in the Mid-Atlantic states. Mike Barker, Managing Partner, Financial Services Division for Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., told DS News, "We are very pleased that Mark has joined the firm as Of Counsel. We see substantial opportunity for him to rebuild his practice in Maryland and we are pleased to embark on this journey with him. ere are few people who could have gone through what he went through and still have enough in them to persevere, fight, and rebuild." As he returns to default practice, Wittstadt said he's encountered a mostly warm reception from both clients and other organizations, something he says he credits to the work he and his brother put into trying to make things right. He also said he's looking forward to returning to this field with lessons instilled both by these particular experiences and from the perspective the years have provided. "You have to have a diversification of your law practice," Wittstadt said. "You can't put all your eggs into one basket and expect that that business is always going to be there, it's always going to thrive, and it's always going to generate the type of revenue that you were accustomed to before. e successful plan is watching the market and figuring out how to provide the best services utilizing as much automation as you can, providing excellent customer service, and diversifying your practice to follow trends to allow for other revenue streams. at's the only way that a successful firm will survive." He also suggests that a sense of vigilance is critical for leadership of firms and other organizations so that they can catch red flags sooner rather than later. "Whoever's at the helm needs to make sure that they are looking at critical areas every day to make sure that things are in accordance with how you want it to run, not just on the surface but in the underlying mechanisms, the underlying workflows," Wittstadt said. "You have to take deeper dives down into the way your firm and your business is running. You have to know those business lines and not take for granted just what's on the surface. It's just like going to the doctor. Just because you feel good doesn't mean you don't go get your checkups." He added, "Everything is not always fine." e story of Mark Wittstadt's past decade is one that often wound through dark places, but now there is sunlight on the horizon. Moreover, the address of his Baltimore offices as he returns to the default industry suggest that maybe, just maybe, the storm has truly passed. He'll be doing business at 902 Light St. "Sometimes bad things happen to good people," Wittstadt said. What matters, he suggests, is what you do next. David Wharton is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where he received his B.A. in English and minored in Journalism. Wharton has over 15 years of experience in journalism and previously worked at omson Reuters, a multinational mass media and information firm, as Associate Content Editor, focusing on producing media content related to tax and accounting principles and government rules and regulations for accounting professionals. Wharton has an extensive and diversified portfolio of freelance material, with published contributions in both online and print media publications.

• Cover