Financial services clients need attorneys who can digest the complicated and ever-changing laws and regulations affecting their unique businesses and translate that information into advice and solutions they can actually use. I strive to give clients realistic risk assessments, simple answers to day-to-day questions, and policy advice that works on the ground. I also work closely with other members of our attorney team to provide clients with thoughtful, nuanced advice that draws on the depth and breadth of our collective experience.
Focusing her national practice on federal and state compliance for consumer financial services clients, Maria “Candy” C. Burnette advises companies on debt collection and servicing issues, direct lending, and indirect automobile financing. She handles an array of matters, including licensing; compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and other federal and state laws regulating lending, collection; and servicing and examination issues. Her clients are composed of banks, national mortgage and non-mortgage lenders and servicers, collection agencies, and automobile finance companies.
Always keeping informed of relevant changes to the laws and regulations that affect her clients, Candy emphasizes the importance of developing procedures that keep them compliant by having input into business practices from their inception. On the servicing and collections side, for example, she finds it gratifying to help draft scripts and build the policies that their employees will use daily to comply with state and federal requirements including those affecting military service members. Candy also regularly reviews documentation and policies for automobile finance companies to make sure they align with all relevant state and federal laws. She knows that crafting sound procedures that keep organizations out of trouble is far more cost-effective than reacting to unforeseen problems and disputes.
Candy spent 12 years in the firm’s Commercial Litigation Group and brings that valuable experience to her practice. She draws on this background of defending financial services clients in state and federal courts, bankruptcy matters, and arbitration and puts it to use in her current compliance work. For example, as a former litigator Candy has a better understanding of true litigation risk and the realities of court interpretations of law, and can bring her advocacy skills to interactions with regulators.