Consumer Finance Litigation: Trends, Updates, and Challenges Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Shanna Boughton defends banks, loan servicers, commercial lenders, and financial institutions in complex litigation and bankruptcy matters, with a primary focus on lender liability defense, complex commercial litigation, insurance defense, and creditors' rights work. She has extensive experience with both class and individual actions, representing lenders relating to fraud, unfair lending, mortgage backed securities, residential and commercial foreclosures, title matters, and commercial loan workouts in State and Federal courts. She routinely represents clients in consumer protection claims arising from the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Shanna also defends commercial clients in professional and general liability matters and casualty claims. With previous experience representing debtors in Chapters 7 and 13 bankruptcy matters, Shanna's practice also includes defending creditors in a variety of commercial and consumer bankruptcy proceedings. Licensed in Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico, Shanna offers unparalleled knowledge of financial regulations and commercial law across a considerable platform. She is also a certified mediator.

Kerry Ann Cummings has more than a decade of experience representing financial institutions in litigation matters involving mortgage foreclosures, creditors’ rights, real estate, and title issues. Kerry has hands-on knowledge of every facet of litigation, from initial case assessment and strategy development through to negotiating a settlement and/or taking a case to trial. She has taken and defended dozens of depositions, drafted numerous motions, and negotiated hundreds of settlements. She approaches each case as an individual situation and strives to take a business-oriented approach to her work, seeking to resolve matters as quickly as possible when appropriate, and at the lowest cost to her client in funds, time, and attention.

Sean Higgins is a partner with K&L Gates in their Boston office. He focuses his practice on consumer financial services litigation, where he represents banks, mortgage lenders, mortgage loan servicers, and automotive finance companies in consumer class actions, individual plaintiff lawsuits, and appeals in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Cases frequently involve challenges under federal statutes, including the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as well as claims under state unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes and common law.  In addition to his consumer financial services work, Sean regularly represents creditors in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. He has represented lenders, master servicers, and special servicers enforcing secured and unsecured loan obligations, and has been involved in a variety of complex commercial workouts and in- and out-of-court restructurings.