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24 year after the oral argument was completed to receive a decision, so being patient is No. 1. Additionally, the FL Supreme Court did not provide the complete clarity regarding the issues surrounding the FL statute of limitations which the firms and clients expected. e holding of this case did not provide clear direction of how to proceed in all aspects, but it did make clear that Borrowers would not get a free house in FL and provides a way for Lenders to refile cases. e Florida Supreme Court did allow an avenue to foreclose, stating that each and every default is a new cause of action, and because of the con- tinuing state of default the statute of limitations did not run. e biggest takeaway is that statute of limitations will not run on a foreclosure case in Florida unless the loan has matured and it has been over 5 years from the last payment and no action has been taken by the Lender to foreclose. In summary, what are other major issues causing litigation in Florida? Appeals: More than ever before, many borrow- ers' counsels are appealing their cases. So, there are many more appeals than there used to be and many more oral arguments before the District Courts of Appeal in Florida. Bankruptcy: ere is new case law in FL hold- ing if a borrower has surrendered their property in bankruptcy, they cannot continue to raise a defense to the foreclosure. is is leading to fore- closure judgments being entered more quickly after a discharge from bankruptcy. Standing: Recent rulings on standing are favor- able to the Lenders—if there has been a service transfer, new case law allows the new servicer to stand in the shoes of the previous servicer. If the servicer who initially files the complaint had standing at the time of inception of the case, the new servicer will be able to stand in their shoes and obtain standing. is was not so in the past, as many judges in FL, were having the new ser- vicer prove their standing separately at the time of the service transfer. No Standing = No Fees: Standing continues to be raised frequently in FL. Due to new rulings, it may be raised less frequently in the future. If a borrower's counsel raises standing as an issue and prevails; borrower's counsel will not be entitled to any attorney fees. Most jurisdictions are follow- ing the line of reasoning; if the Lender is not a party to the contract/mortgage, then the Lender Jane Bond is the Managing Partner of McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC's Florida Litigation Group. She has over 25 years' litigation experience, with 20 years specifically devoted to business and real estate litigation involving the mortgage lending and servicing industries. Bond has experience representing clients as both appellants and appellees in ap- pellate proceedings before the District Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court in Florida and has participated in oral arguments before several of the District Courts of Appeal. She presents frequent lectures at training seminars, confer- ences, and continuing legal education courses on real property issues, including mortgage fore- closure, title issues, federal forfeiture, eminent domain, code violations, insurance issues and deficiencies. In your role, what does your day-to-day look like? One of my favorite management quotes is, "e highest calling of leadership is the growth and development of the people." In my day to day, I strive to serve both my clients and employees well through education, training, and problem solving. e favorite part of my day is when I get to help others learn and grow in their jobs. I really enjoy the training which leads to solutions—be- ing involved in events where I can speak and teach others about the industry and help to solve the everyday issues encountered in financial services litigation. I spend a major portion of my day problem solving with our clients and our MRLP at- torneys to obtain the best results for all parties. Many times, there is a "win-win" solution to our litigation where all involved agree to a compromise to resolve all outstanding issues. e solutions come through various forms of communication which structures my daily ac- tivities. My day revolves around communication externally, to clients, and internally, to attorneys, paralegals and staff of our Litigation Depart- ment. e communication takes many forms from emails and telephone calls, to reading case law and trade publications, to reviewing reports and client scorecards and preparing marketing materials. Managing the Litigation Depart- ment requires communication with our clients and our many attorneys and paralegals who are looking for direction on where the industry is going, what could be happening in the future, and what they need to do today. Recently, you represented an amicus cur- iae before the Florida Supreme Court in the U.S. Bank v. Bartram case on the statute of limitations question in the mortgage fore- closure context. What can law firms expect to learn from the decision in this case? What should they know about present- ing information in front of state Supreme Courts? What first comes to my mind is that law firms need to be patient when working with a Supreme Court of the state—it took over a COUNSEL'S CORNER LEARNING LESSONS FROM DIVERSE COURT CASES Jane Bond, Esq. Managing Partner, Florida Litigation, McCalla Raymer Leibert, Pierce, LLC

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