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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 44 November 2025 F E A T U R E S T O R Y Q: You worked your way up through the ranks to your current position. Could you talk a little bit about how you reached your current role with the firm? I started working for Peter Roach in 2005 as a part-time law student. During that time, I brought in several new bank clients through my personal connec- tions. Peter famously asked, "Who is this Anna? Why is this young law student getting me bank clients?" I didn't think of it as anything special at the time. I just believed in the firm and in Peter. I wanted to recommend him to friends who owned or worked with banks. After I worked through my law school years, when I graduated, he didn't have an attorney position for me, so I went out and became a litigator down in the Wall Street area. I worked in litigation, defend- ing elevator companies. Peter called me up a year and a half later and said, "I remembered you, and I remembered your work ethic. Why don't you come back and work for me?" Long story short, I came back to work for him as an associate attorney. He taught me everything I needed to know about foreclosure, because my experience was limited at the time. While working with Peter, I took every possible opportunity to learn from him. Peter was a professor at St. John's Law School, and he taught foreclosures for 35 years. I had the perfect professor I n an industry often defined by persistence, precision, and people skills, few embody all three quite like En-Chia "Anna" Lin, Principal and President of Roach & Lin, P.C. Over nearly two decades, Anna has climbed every rung of the firm—from part-time intern to managing attorney to majority shareholder —all while guiding clients through some of the most complex foreclosure cases in New York's notoriously challenging legal landscape. Anna is admitted to the bars of New York, New Jersey, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. In addition, Anna is fluent in Chinese, Taiwanese, and conversational Spanish. As a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University (B.A., Economics) and St. John's University School of Law (J.D.), she has become a respected voice in foreclosure, litigation, loss mitigation, and real estate law, as well as a role model for women and minority professionals navigating the legal and mortgage default sectors. In this conversation, Anna reflects on her journey from law student to firm principal, the lessons she learned from her mentor, and the three val- ues that guide her leadership: gratitude, authenticity, and hard work. and tutor by my side every single day. I was an associate, then I became the managing attorney for his foreclosure department, which was very small at that time. It helped me progress because I was able to "start small" in terms of managing the team. As I was learning, Peter came and asked, "Anna, would you like to be a contract partner for me?" I initially re- sponded with "No." He said, "What? You might be the only attorney in the world who would turn down a partnership." I replied, "I don't need for you to give me a title for me to be loyal—I truly believe in the firm and am so grateful for you." At that time, I didn't believe that I deserved that title because I didn't know what it meant to be a partner. Peter started teaching me the business aspects of running a law firm, which prompted me to start looking at foreclosures in a different light. As a partner, my understanding of this job continued to evolve. I started going to conferences where I made connections and relationships with clients, both existing and new, and I loved it! I always emphasized the importance of being responsive, and as the years went on, clients would reach out to me, which resulted in gaining a lot of trust amongst the clients. I was thrilled to see the results—our firm started to grow! In 2018, I became the majority shareholder and the president of the firm. Our firm became a state-certified, minority-owned law firm and a wom- an-owned law firm. Q: Can you also talk about the benefits and challenges of the approach to having a single- state footprint? One of the challenges of being a single-state firm is that when the indus- try shifts or banks and lenders decide to downsize the size of their networks of law firms, single-state firms may be at a disadvantage. While I believe this may be true nationally, New York is one of the most difficult states in which to complete a foreclosure. I do believe that Counsel's Corner Anna Lin Principal and President, Roach & Lin, P.C. B y D E M E T R I A L E S T E R