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80 that for the last 30-plus years," she said. "Our employees are highly skilled in dealing with all facets of loss mitigation and we regularly, over the last umpteen years and through the last financial crisis, have handled and continue to handle various loss mitigation requests in various ways." Castle added that technology has aided these efforts, as they are able to transfer calls to clients and even handle them directly. Mike Sullivan, the Director of Marketing and Client Relations for Codilis & Associates, P.C., reiterates a similar sentiment in that Codilis firms have practiced loss mitigation since inception, 43 years ago. Sullivan said the most important thing to understand is, "What does the borrower want?" Both Sullivan and Castle agree that law firms are used to dealing with the volume of calls that are expected, which Sullivan said is a "compliance-sensitive mission." "Many firms have borrower assistance teams or loss mitigation teams—people that deal in reinstatements, payoffs, and other borrower inquiries. ose people are easily transformed into loss mitigation assistance communicators," Castle said. Castle added that many law firms lived through the Great Recession more than a decade ago, and there are many lessons they learned from that, one of which being the amount of loss mitigation work that was involved. "Because of the sheer volume of law firms involved in the past, they've done the training, understand the process, understand how to communicate and reach out and put in the technology in place to be able to help our clients now that we are facing that situation again," she said. Sullivan added that financial services law firms work with both mortgage documents and loss mitigation documents on a regular basis so they are more than familiar with the lay of the land. "When you talk about the attorneys in their individual states, they're licensed within those states," Sullivan continued. "ey have an ethical duty, in terms of the compliance and making sure that they're treating both our clients and their customers fairly. It's a natural fit for these firms to be able to help." INDUSTRY IMPACT Being familiar with the paperwork and processes involved in loss mitigation work, Sullivan said the volume of work is not a concern for law firms that have historically performed loss mitigation services. "e individual law firms already handle a lot of work and are used to fluctuations in the amount of work that they do. e question is, 'How can we fit in and help?' ere is a significant amount of work that needs to be done; however, the law firms have the capacity to help," Sullivan said. Sullivan added that communication with servicers and their customers will also be one of the biggest challenges facing law firms, explaining that in the "first wave" there will be significant outreach from borrowers and mortgage servicers impacted by COVID-19. "In-bound calls and communications will require immediate response, leaving borrowers who don't reach out typically underserved. At the same time, our clients will be challenged to provide staffing. In many cases, their offices will be closed or have limited staffing," he said. Castle echoed Sullivan, saying it is important not to duplicate efforts and to set up appropriate lines of communication. Another challenge noted by Castle is how the "complete moratorium" on much of the work these law firms do will impact them, suggesting that many firms have already shifted into "survival mode." "We need to make sure that staff is available at the law firm side and that there is a way for the law firm to be able to continue to pay for those staff when the normal course of business has basically come to a complete standstill," Castle said. "e sheer number of consumers requesting forbearance and/ or modifications may become overwhelming and we're here to help. Working together the servicers and law firms will hopefully improve the consumer experience " Sullivan added that the moratorium "The sheer number of consumers requesting forbearance and/or modifications may become overwhelming and we're here to help." —Caren Castle, Senior Attorney, The Wolf Firm

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