DS News

14 STEPHEN M. HLADIK, Partner, Hladik, Onorato & Federman, LLP; Legal League 100 Chair Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve with Legal League? It has truly been an honor to serve as the Chair of the Advisory Council for the Legal League. In the first half of this year, we have seen a growth in membership, participation from new firms increase, attendance at our webinars climb, and attendance at our Spring Summit exceed expectations. As we enter the second half of 2022, our goals will be to continue growing our membership, improving the visibility of our Legal League brand, sponsoring top educational webinars, and promoting advocacy for our member firms and our industry. In the post-COVID-19 era, our member firms and the mortgage servicing industry face challenges in dealing with difficulties in hiring staff, enhanced regulatory burdens, and inflationary pressures that affect our businesses. It is our vision to promote our firms, remain an active advocate for our industry, and enhance our membership benefits. What do you think LL's top accomplishments have been over the past few challenging years? COVID-19 had deep and lasting effects on all our members and the mortgage industry. e Legal league has navigated these challenges and is experiencing upward trends, from our membership numbers to our programs to our attendance. is is only the beginning. We expect to offer top-notch educational opportunities, outstanding content at our Summits, and social events to enhance networking. Our Strategic Initiative Working Group is producing dynamic informative white papers for our industry. e Webinar Committee continues to provide excellent speakers and material. Our new Government Affairs Committee will be there to meet important regulatory issues that are on the horizon. We are also launching a Publications Committee, which will provide great opportunities for our members to publish articles on key topics relevant to the mortgage community. We are excited for the future of the LL100. In what areas would you like to see LL grow and expand? What would you like to see the League doing, or doing more of? First, membership growth is always important, and increasing our membership in various states across the country is a priority. Our organization provides wonderful opportunities for law firms in the default industry. e events, networking, and educational offerings are impressive, and member firms have a lot of avenues to promote their attorneys and staff. Second, offering the best possible benefits to member firms is an area we are focusing on. We want to ensure that all new and existing members have multiple avenues to get involved. ird, promotion of social activities is also an important means of fostering the friendships we have made throughout the years in this industry. By way of example, the LL100 is sponsoring an evening at the Texas Rangers this June, which is a wonderful evening of camaraderie. Fourth, our goal is to ensure that content and speakers at our Summits is among the industry's best, providing meaningful and insightful viewpoints into the ever-changing default servicing world. What were your top takeaways from this spring's Summit? e Spring Summit was a wonderful and well-attended event. It was satisfying to see the number of member firms turn out for the event and to see the high-caliber industry speakers that participated in our panels. e panel discussions focused on a significant number of issues affecting our industry, from regulation, to enforcement, to continuing litigation challenges. e main takeaway is that we are looking forward to our fall summit at the Five Star Conference, with an even bigger and better turnout! We truly thank the staff of the Five Star for all the hard work that went into putting this successful event together. J. ANTHONY VAN NESS, Founder, Managing Partner, Van Ness Law Firm; Legal League 100 Vice Chair Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve with Legal League? I had unsolicited feedback from servicers saying the Spring Summit was one of the best conferences they have been to in a long time. ere is nothing that makes me happier than to hear that, because we have something special building here. As such, my main priorities are making sure we continue with the education and the fun. We want our attorney and servicing members involved doing both. Let's face it, attorneys join for exposure and getting themselves in front of servicers. We do a lot of webinars, white papers, panels, and now certification courses. We have two Summits with multiple receptions and now a separate annual outing like the Texas Rangers event this summer. As with the certification courses, we should be able to create additional value for the servicing and attorney members who are lawyers through CLE courses. We already produce the course, now we just need to get approval from the state bars so our members can get credit. What do you think Legal League's top accomplishments have been over the past few challenging years? Survival. It's tough to grow relationships over Zoom, but we pumped out webinars and virtual summits, nonetheless. I think we have done a wonderful job holding down the fort, and now we're rising like a phoenix from the ashes. We have some great new wrinkles everyone will enjoy for the Five Star. In what areas would you like to see LL grow and expand? What would you like to see the League doing, or doing more of? I stole my own thunder before, but I would like to make our educational materials into CLE credits. We are already adding a supplemental event which I mentioned before. I would like to see more value-add where we can. I had thrown out the idea of possibly educating our members in other legal areas. I think the pandemic has shown us that, even being a multistate law firm, Exposure "Our organization provides wonderful opportunities for law firms in the default industry." —Stephen M. Hladik, Legal League 100 Chair Voices of The 2022 Legal League 100

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