DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1542096
MortgagePoint ยป Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 42 December 2025 C O U N S E L ' S C O R N E R Editor's Note: This interview was con- ducted on November 21, prior to the Court of Appeals issuing its decision on FAPA and reflects information current at that time. A dam J. Friedman is a Man- aging Partner at Friedman Vartolo LLP. He presently serves as the managing part- ner of the Garden City, Jersey City, and Philadelphia offices. Friedman manages the Bankruptcy, Financial, Mid-Atlantic Foreclosure, and Technology depart- ments of the firm. Prior to founding Fried- man Vartolo, Friedman managed the Real Estate and Foreclosure divisions of Pulvers, Pulvers, Thompson & Friedman, LLP from 2010 to his departure. Friedman is admitted to practice law in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania state courts, as well as the United States District Courts in New Jersey and the Eastern, Southern, Western, and North- ern Districts of New York. Q: What do you think sets your firm apart in this space? I love this question, because I truly see Friedman Vartolo as a unicorn in the default space. There are law firms with deep, high-level litigation expertise in one or two notoriously challenging states. There are also firms with a true multi- state footprint, capable of managing high volumes of standard matters across multiple jurisdictions. Frankly, most firms in this space are capable of nei- ther. We're one of the few firms that can operate at scale and handle the highest risk matters in the country. New York remains the most chal- lenging litigation environment in our industry, and it has become our calling card. Our clients rely on us for litigation excellence across every state we serve, and we've structured our legal team to exceed that expectation. Our attorneys handle the most complex and delicate matters. Cases that require experience, precision, and an ability to balance legal, regulatory, and business considerations simultaneously. Parallel to our litigation strength, we've built a true operational engine that is scalable, data-driven, and constantly evolving. We operate seamlessly across six states today, with the infrastructure to expand far beyond that. Our systems were designed for end-to-end manage- ment, blending speed on routine matters with exceptional depth on complex ones. We're pushing the limits of what a default services firm can automate, integrating AI, workflow automation, and real-time data into every aspect of our operations. And we're doing it with purpose: to give our attorneys the freedom to focus on judgment-heavy work and to give our clients a firm that gets stronger and faster every single year. At our core, we're a firm built for complexity and scale. That combination is what sets us apart. Q: Are there any recent court decisions or legal trends that servicers and investors should be paying closer attention to? Several legal and regulatory devel- opments deserve close attention right now because of potential risk movement across the industry. In New York, the statute-of-limitations landscape remains one of the most consequential. The Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act, or "FAPA," sharply restricted a lender's ability to stop or reset acceleration, and the following litigation centered on retroactive applicability has created real uncertainty. With the Supreme Court declining review in U.S. Bank v. Fox, all eyes are now on the New York Court of Appeals, which is weighing retroactivity Counsel's Corner LITIGATION TRENDS, FAPA RISKS, AND THE FUTURE OF DEFAULT LAW In this month's Counsel's Corner, Friedman Vartolo Managing Partner Adam J. Friedman discusses the firm's litigation-driven model, emerging legal risks from New York to Maryland, and how AI will reshape the role of law firms in servicing.