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16 don't want to add when you don't know what's going to pick up. We've tried to remain status quo and follow the trends of the bankruptcy filings, both consumer and commercial, to see where we would need to add. MICHELLE GARCIA GILBERT, President/ CEO, Gilbert Garcia Group, P.A. Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve? We have been receiving referrals in Florida, where I practice. e process seems to be going as well as can be expected. We're aware of the pressure on the industry from the workouts, potential workouts, distressed borrowers. We always strive to resolve cases if we can. During the last couple of years, we have continued to expand into other practice areas, so that has helped us a lot. And throughout the pandemic, over the last couple of years, we've had an increase in that non-foreclosure work. We didn't have to lay off any staff. We continued forward and implemented a hybrid work schedule, but otherwise, we've been in the office. I think the clients are facing some of what the firms are facing in that you lost some staffing, you lost your footing from when it was in the office with everybody working together. It was an adjustment period at the beginning of 2022, a question mark about what else might happen. I think it will lead to increased business for the industry and for the firms, and they will right-size again. Were the other business lines something you already had established or new pursuits? Well, I had a work life before doing foreclosure work, and that included probate guardianship, estate planning, general civil work. We just reach out to bar referral sources, legal insurance, that kind of thing. It's just amazing how that work area has taken off, and then we hired staffing especially for those practice areas. We brought in new people that had some of that other experience. ere's a specter of the CFPB hanging over servicers. at being the case, some servicers may refrain from aggressive pursuit of foreclosures because they want to make sure they've dotted their I's and cross their T's before they proceed. Have you seen any significant change as far as borrower engagement or responsiveness since the onset of the pandemic? e borrowers seem to be savvier about the ability to get a workout. What we are seeing, more than anything, is a request for payoff figures, because they're selling the property. at's a pain-point for our clients because they have all these tasks they need to handle. We need to get payoff figures. ere also may be delays in the context of processing our cases. We need to keep bugging them for figures because they're having this closing, right? ey're trying to sell the property and pay the client off. Have there been any other big changes as far as how you do business, beyond just the hybrid work model? One thing we did, starting last year, is we changed our case-management system. We were using a case-management system that is no longer being supported, so we made the investment to change, and what we're doing is getting as many automations and integrations as we possibly can. We're looking towards doing more with fewer staff and being able to function much more efficiently. We don't have to add staff because I'd rather not add somebody if I can't get somebody good, that's a fit, that's a match that we can train and work with. I always have ads running just to see what I get both for attorneys and for staff. We'll hire somebody even if we don't exactly need them, if they seem like they're going to be a good fit, but that doesn't happen that often. C. LANCE MARGOLIN, Partner Emeritus/ Director, REO and Eviction Services, The Margolin & Weinreb Law Group, LLP Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve? We are a New York-based firm, and the various moratoria that were in place, federal and state, kept us on hold for almost everything through the middle of January of this year. Unfortunately, there were some regulatory issues, which prevented our clients from sending out new foreclosure referrals, and we're probably not going to see anything until it's going to be nice and hot. e weather will be hot, maybe even starting to cool off, by the time we see the new referrals come in, so by the time all is said and done, this will have been a two-and-a-half to three-year shutdown for us. We're keeping our clients happy. We are fully staffed, but it's just a little bit challenging without the new referrals coming in and without the fees we need being generated. How have you navigated that? Have you taken on different types of work you maybe wouldn't have done before? Well, one of the things that I found is that if you're doing default work, it's challenging to take on other work, because it means you need staff with completely different skills, and, where we are on Long Island, staffing is brutally expensive. It's not to say it can't be done, but it's sort of like eating lunch at 11:30 when you have a one o'clock lunch appointment. You may be hungry at that minute, but you're going to be eating again in an hour. What have been your main takeaways from the conference? My main takeaways are that the industry is still trying to adapt to what's going on between Homeowner Assistance Funds, which I think in New York may have run out already, but in other states are still active, and how that's playing out. at's certainly a big factor. e expression that was used during COVID-19 was, "We're all in this together." No, we're not all in this together. We're in this Exposure Voices of The 2022 Legal League 100 "It was an adjustment period at the beginning of 2022, a question mark about what else might happen." -Michelle Garcia Gilbert, President/CEO, Gilbert Garcia Group, P.A.

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