News

Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue LLP is pleased to announce that renowned prosecutor and trial lawyer Alan Jackson will join the firm’s Los Angeles office as a Partner and Co-Chair of the Trial and Arbitration Group. Mr. Jackson is an 18-year veteran prosecutor and former Assistant Head Deputy for Los Angeles County’s District Attorney’s Office. In private practice, Mr. Jackson will be handling high-stakes trials and arbitrations in civil matters and will remain actively involved in crime prevention, community service and the education for at-risk youths.

“Alan is regarded by his peers in the legal community as an attorney with unmatched instinct and ability in the courtroom,” stated E. Scott Palmer, Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue’s Managing Partner. “Alan’s experience successfully managing multi-level trial teams and complex cases combined with his rigorous intellect, sound judgment and fierce commitment to justice will bring great depth to our high-stakes Trial and Arbitration Group.”

As a member of the District Attorney’s Major Crimes Division, Mr. Jackson, specializing in the handling of high-profile and complex violent crimes including capital prosecutions, led the prosecution in some of Los Angeles’ most important and widely publicized verdicts. Mr. Jackson won the murder conviction of “Wall of Sound” music producer Phil Spector in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson, earning Los Angeles’ first significant celebrity conviction in more than four decades. He also secured the death penalty conviction of gold bullion dealer James Fayed for the contract killing of his wife in a Century City parking structure.

Mr. Jackson has tried 85 jury trials to verdict with a career felony conviction rate of 97 percent. During his tenure in the Hard Core Gang Division, Mr. Jackson secured guilty verdicts in more than 30 murder cases in five years. The complex trial tactics Mr. Jackson pioneered were later published by the United States Department of Justice in prosecutorial teaching manuals distributed nationwide. Mr. Jackson was twice named Prosecutor of the Year and was listed by the Daily Journal as one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in California.”

Mr. Jackson stated, “I look forward to contributing to the legal success of my clients and colleagues at Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue. The firm provides an excellent platform for me to transition into a civil trial practice and continue my community service.”

A public safety leader dedicated to crime prevention and community empowerment, Mr. Jackson has served on the board of INMED Partnerships for Children, which collaborates with communities to provide mentoring and education for at-risk youths. He also volunteers for San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps YouthBuild, a gang-intervention and job training program serving low-income youths ages 16 to 24.

A veteran of the United States Air Force, Mr. Jackson received his law degree from Pepperdine University in 1994 and his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991.

On January 3, 2013, in an article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal entitled “Small Firms Expect More Work, Struggles Over Growth in Next Decade,” author Ryne Hodkowski wrote:

E. Scott Palmer, co-founder of 22-attorney Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue LLP, said that upon establishing the firm 13 years ago, he set goals to reach 20 to 25 attorneys, develop practice areas in securities, banking, litigation and real estate and cover Northern California and Southern California. With those initial goals accomplished, he said the future growth of the firm is in the hands of its clients.

“The most important thing for us is to grow prudently and based on the real needs and opportunities presented to us by our clients,” he said. “We don’t want to be a ‘build it and they will come’ type of law firm.”

Palmer’s attitude is in line with several other managing partners of small and mid-sized firms.

Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue LLP recently obtained a published decision favorable to its lender client from the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit. The case, Medrano, et al. v. Flagstar Bank, FSB, et al., involved a borrower who sent 3 letters to the lender claiming that they were Qualified Written Requests made under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. section 2605. The letters did not indicate they were Qualified Written Requests made under 12 U.S.C. section 2605; instead, the letters asserted that the terms of the loan were incorrect. Roland Reynolds and Frederick Haist successfully argued to the Ninth Circuit that even though a Qualified Written Request does not need to contain magic words to fulfill the mandates of 12 U.S.C. section 2605, it must indicate that there is a problem with the servicing. The Court agreed with Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Haist that letters asserting a problem with the loan terms and origination would not constitute a Qualified Written Request under 12 U.S.C. section 2605. As a consequence of the decision, the Ninth Circuit upheld the trial court’s ruling dismissing the borrower’s 12 U.S.C. section 2605 claim. This case helps clarify what constitutes a Qualified Written Request under 12 U.S.C. section 2605 and will serve as an important road map for future claims involving that statute.

Read published Opinion.

Partner Roland Reynolds will lead a workshop on “Managing Local Governments’ Increased Use of Ordinance Violations to Regulate Properties in Foreclosure,” at the Residential Mortgage Litigation & Regulatory Enforcement conference organized by American Conference Institute in San Francisco on January 18th. The session will address municipal enforcement actions, both defensively and offensively, and new developments in the area of threatened eminent domain actions against private label mortgage-backed securities.

The conference brings together key regulatory and enforcement officials, state attorney generals, top defense firms, expert in-house counsel and renowned judges.

Partner Scott Palmer will be a panelist at the Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation conference organized by American Conference Institute in New York on January 31st. The panel, “Residential Mortgage Litigation: Defending Against Claims Arising From Loan Servicing, Foreclosures, MERS, and Loan Modification Practices, Implementing Effective Loss Mitigation Strategies, and Complying with New and Emerging Regulations,’” will assess the CFPB’s new and emerging mortgage-related rulemaking, how to navigate class actions, litigation and government enforcement in the face of unprecedented regulatory and enforcement scrutiny, as well as many other topics.

The conference brings together state and federal regulators and enforcement officials, senior in-house counsel, renowned state and federal judges and top defense counsel to discuss new class action trends, emerging theories of liability, the latest enforcement actions and regulatory initiatives and the most effective defense and settlement strategies.

For the second consecutive year, Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue received the honor of being named one of the 2012 “Best Places to Work in Los Angeles,” published by the Los Angeles Business Journal. The distinction is granted to the best small, medium and large-sized companies to work for in Los Angeles County. The rankings were based on employee responses to a 72-question Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey, as well as county benchmarking data.

Partner Roland Reynolds will be a panelist at the Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation conference organized by American Conference Institute in Chicago on July 30th and 31st. The panel, “The CFPB and Consumer Finance Litigation: Evaluating and Preparing For the Bureau’s Enforcement Priorities and Assessing the Scope of Its Authority, Including Over Nonbank ‘Larger Participants,’” will be held on Monday, July 30, 2012. The panel will discuss the CFPB’s enforcement priorities, offering financial services companies an idea of what they can expect and how to prepare themselves, as well as an examination of which entities fall under the bureau’s authority. The conference brings together state and federal regulators, senior in-house counsel, state and federal judges and top defense counsel to examine issues related to the increased scrutiny faced by consumer financial services companies, including the increase in government regulation and the growth of litigation and class action lawsuits within the industry.

The California Mortgage Bankers Association’s (CMBA) 17th Annual Western States Loan Servicing Conference will be held in Las Vegas from July 29th through July 31st, with Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue serving as a sponsor. The CMBA represents the residential and commercial real estate finance industry before all governing bodies, and seeks to promote sound business practices and honesty in the mortgage lending industry through educational and networking opportunities.