Speakers

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 Confirmed Speakers to Date


 Alexander E. Perriello, III, has served as president and chief executive officer of the Realogy Franchise Group since April 2004. The Group is the largest franchisor of residential and commercial real estate brokerage offices in the world. Perriello oversees the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, ERA® and Sotheby’s International Realty® real estate brands, which combined have approximately 14,700 franchised and company-owned offices and 264,000 brokers and sales associates doing business in 100 countries around the world.  Perriello previously served as president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation from 1997 to 2004.

With more than 30 years in the real estate industry, Perriello is widely recognized as a real estate industry leader and keen observer in the areas of policy and market trends. He served as the 2010 Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Strategic Planning Committee, and was the NAR 2008 Special Liaison for Large Firm Relations.

Perriello has appeared as an industry expert on various news networks, including CNN, CNBC and FOX News. In addition, he has been widely quoted in real estate trade magazines as well as business and consumer publications, including USA Today, Fortune, Money and The Wall Street Journal. In 2006, Perriello co-authored the book, “Ten Traits for Top Performers – A Real Estate Professional’s Guide to a Winning Career.”

David H. Stevens is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).  Stevens has more than 30 years as an executive in mortgage finance, sales, acquisition, investment, risk management and regulatory oversight. Stevens started his professional career at the World Savings Bank and was later a Senior Vice President at Freddie Mac and an Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo, before being President and Chief Operating Officer of Long and Foster Companies, the nation’s largest, privately-held real estate firm.

Immediately prior to joining MBA, Stevens was the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this role, Stevens had direct responsibility for oversight and administration of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance portfolio.

Stevens is quoted frequently in major national and trade media on issues affecting the mortgage and housing markets. He was named one of Swanepoel TRENDS Report’s top ten “Newsmakers” of the year, made Bloomberg’s “50 Most Powerful People in Real Estate” list, and has twice been named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders” by Inman News. Stevens serves as Director of the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, MBA’s national 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization for philanthropic ventures. He also currently serves on the Hope Loan Port board of directors and the NeighborWorks America board of directors.

Stevens is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder. He and his wife, Mary, have four children and live in Washington, DC.

Lisa Bloom "Understanding Today's Consumers and the Culture Surrounding Them": “Feisty, articulate and driven” are three words the Philadelphia Inquirer used to describe OUR WORLD LIVE’s Closing General Session speaker, Lisa Bloom.  Ms. Bloom is an award winning journalist, television legal analyst, trial attorney, and daughter of renowned women’s rights attorney, Gloria Allred. As a daily fixture on American television for the last decade, she is a CBS News Legal Analyst, appears regularly on The Early Show, The Dr. Phil Show, CNN and HLN prime time shows such as Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, The Joy Behar Show, AC 360, and The Situation Room. She has been featured on Oprah, Nightline, Today, Good Morning America, Rachael Ray, and many more.

Recently, Ms. Bloom was named one of the top five celebrity attorneys in Los Angeles. In the past year she has represented Oksana Grigorieva, Michael Lohan, and Michaele and Tareq Salahi.

Ms. Bloom’s keynote at the Joint General Seassion is based on her recently published book, the New York Times bestseller, Think:  Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World.  

Lynette Hale-Lee, Senior Vice President for Prospect Mortgage, is a 20-year veteran of the industry who has contributed to Prospect Mortgage’s (previously Metrocities Mortgage) joint

venture platform for 12+ years, serving in joint venture strategic planning, business development, sales management, production support and operations. With experience in escrow and title,

Lynette started her lending career as a loan originator in a top real estate company joint venture achieving President’s Club status. She has held a California real estate license since 1988.

Jennifer M. Keas is an associate with Foley & Lardner LLP and a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Distribution & Franchise and Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practices.  Ms. Keas has also assisted defendants and plaintiffs in telecommunications, franchise, breach of contract, labor and employment and bankruptcy disputes, as well as in investigations and enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.  Ms. Keas also made a significant commitment to pro bono work, obtaining favorable outcomes for clients in child custody, landlord tenant and Social Security benefits matters. Ms. Keas is a member of Foley's Recruiting Committee and the Charity Committee for the DC office.  Ms. Keas graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School (J.D., 2006), where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and graduated with distinction. While attending law school, Ms. Keas was a member of the first place team and the best oral advocate in the National Women Law Student Association's Sojourner Truth Moot Court competition (2005). She earned her B.A., with honors, from the University of Wisconsin (2003).

Mitch Kider is a founding member of Weiner Brodsky Sidman Kider PC, and has served as the firm’s Chairman since its inception. 

A litigator by trade, Mitch has defended clients in more than 100 class action lawsuits in federal and state courts throughout the country.  In addition, he has provided representation on both the plaintiff and defense side of complex commercial cases, including mortgage loan fraud and repurchase cases.

Mitch’s practice includes the representation of banks, mortgage companies, homebuilders, credit card issuers and other financial service companies in a broad range of regulatory and compliance matters, as well.  He represents clients in investigative and enforcement actions before HUD, VA, DOJ, FTC, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and various state and local regulatory authorities and AG offices.

Mitch acts as outside General Counsel to smaller companies and special regulatory and litigation counsel to Fortune 500 companies.  He is a frequent speaker on industry matters and is a Faculty Fellow of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

Loretta Salzano Loretta Salzano founded Franzén and Salzano in 1996 after serving as in-house counsel to financial institutions. Loretta manages the firm’s state and federal compliance practice. She is also a founder of ComplyShare, a mortgage quality control and compliance company.

Loretta advises banks, mortgage lenders, and other settlement service providers on how to increase their business while remaining within the confines of the laws of all 50 states and federal law including, but not limited to, “The Dodd-Frank Act,” RESPA, TILA, ECOA and HMDA. Loretta advises her clients regarding licensure, marketing, fees, disclosures, reporting, fair lending, compensation and other matters related to their products and services. She drafts and negotiates contracts, including marketing agreements, work share agreements, leases and compensation agreements. Loretta also assists clients in responding to regulatory examinations and actions.

Loretta serves as Legal Counsel to the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia and to Rainbow Village, a transitional housing program. She is active in many other industry, professional and civic associations and frequently speaks on mortgage issues. Loretta is Martindale-Hubbell’s Financial Law Panelist for Ask a Lawyer, and her firm serves as the Georgia editor to Houselaw. Loretta received her B.A. with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School..

Jay N. Varon is a litigation partner in the firm's Washington D.C. office. Mr. Varon has litigated a broad cross-section of commercial cases around the country, including antitrust and unfair competition, consumer finance and deceptive trade practice involving matters relating to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 ("RESPA"), the Fair Credit Reporting Act, ("FCRA"), Truth In Lending Act ("TILA"), "fair lending" and related federal and state unfair trade practice and consumer protection laws, as well as cases dealing with trade secrets, employment, environmental, business tort, securities fraud, product liability, and breach of contract issues. Many of the cases that Mr. Varon handles involve the defense of class actions or other complex cases. He is a former chair of Foley's Antitrust Practice and of its Washington D.C. Litigation Department.
A niche area of Mr. Varon's practice involves the counseling of real estate clients (i.e., real estate brokers, mortgage brokers and lenders, mortgage and hazard insurers and title agents and title insurers), and representing them before HUD and/or state agencies with respect to various RESPA, fair lending, antitrust, consumer protection, and related state law issues, including those involving the establishment of affiliated business arrangements and joint ventures. Mr. Varon has been antitrust and RESPA counsel to the Real Estate Services Providers Council, Inc. ("RESPRO") since its inception and has litigated for RESPRO and many of its members, as well as non-members for many years.

One of Mr. Varon's early successes involved having RESPRO intervene in, and then successfully defend, a case that the Mortgage Bankers Association and another trade association had brought challenging the 1992 RESPA regulation which was pro-controlled business. One of Mr. Varon's most recent publicly reported successes occurred in Chenault v. Mississippi Valley Title ("MVT") 2003 WL 21221735 ( 5th Cir. June 11, 2003) in which he successfully defended MVT against a RESPA class action challenge to volume and differentiated commission structures with its agents before the District Court and on appeal before the Fifth Circuit. See also slip op. Jacobs v. MVT (N.D. Miss. March 21, 2003) (awarding summary judgment on the merits of Plaintiffs' RESPA challenge to the use of different agent commission rates). Mr. Varon also has represented a major mortgage insurer in a nationwide RESPA class action and has represented various national real estate brokerage companies and various title agents in several different RESPA and unfair trade practice class actions involving markups, pricing issues regarding closing and title insurance fees, and home warranties and marketing agreements. Mr. Varon authored an industry amicus brief in the landmark case Haug v. Bank of America, 317 F.3d 832 ( 8th Cir. 2003), which refused to follow HUD's Statement of Policy on unearned fees that RESPRO and other groups had vocally criticized. Mr. Varon has also been involved in defending different class actions under TILA and FCRA. The FCRA case raised questions of first impression regarding FCRA's application to mortgage insurance which is issued to lenders, not consumers. Mr. Varon successfully defeated class certification in the FCRA case and recently defeated class certification motions in two as yet unreported cases (one in New Jersey and one in Alabama) that challenged different real estate brokers use of a so-called administrative fee under section 8(b) of RESPA and/or a state consumer fraud statute.

Mr. Varon also continues to litigate complex cases in the antitrust arena (including one major case involving price-fixing in the securities industry), in the environmental arena (under "CERCLA" involving claims going back to the conduct occurring in the 1800s), and in the product liability/consumer protection arena (including a state-wide class action in West Virginia). He recently won two major CERCLA cases in which large dollar contribution claims against his client for cleanup costs of were dismissed on summary judgment. See Consolidated Edison Company of New York v. UGI Utilities, Inc., 2004 WL 627090 (S.D.N.Y.) aff'd 153 F. App'x 749 (2d Cir.2005); Atlanta Gas Light Company v. UGI Utilities, Inc., 2006 WL 2547076 ( 11th Cir. 2006)(affirming district court grant of summary judgment to UGI.)

Mr. Varon was named to BTI Consulting Group's coveted Client Services All Star Team for 2009. This honor is bestowed upon individual attorneys who deliver outstanding client service according to corporate counsel interviewed at Fortune 1000 companies. He also was recently named a 2007 Washington, D.C. "Super Lawyer" in antitrust litigation by Law & Politics Media, Inc.

Mr. Varon is a 1972 magna cum laude graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. He attended Stanford Law School, where he was an articles editor of the Stanford Law Review. Mr. Varon graduated from Stanford in 1975, Order of the Coif. Following law school, he was a law clerk to the Honorable Robert F. Peckham, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, and joined Foley in Washington, D.C. in 1976.

Mr. Varon is the author of various RESPA publications for RESPRO, including "RESPA Primer On Joint Ventures And Affiliated Business Arrangements," "RESPA Guide To Affiliated Business Disclosures," "2001 Survey of State Laws Affecting Affiliated Settlement Service Providers," and "Guide To Section 8 Of RESPA For Settlement Service Salespersons," and various other articles on antitrust and RESPA topics. He is also the author of "Promoting Settlements and Limiting Litigation Costs By Means of the Offer of Judgment; Some Suggestions for Using and Revising Rule 68," 33 Am. U. L. Rev. 813 (1984).