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Confirmed Speakers to Date



Steve Barker has worked in the Real Estate and Mortgage Industries for over 21 years, first as a licensed Real Estate Professional in Maryland and as an originating Branch Manager since 1991.  Prosperity Mortgage’s partnership with one of the largest financial institutions in the country (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage) and of the largest independently owned Real Estate Companies in the Country (Long and Foster Real Estate) has allowed Steve to provide home financing for well over 3000 families, funding nearly a half billion dollars in residential home loans.

Steve has a passion for teaching and is a Certified Continuing Education Instructor for Maryland Real Estate Professionals as well as a Nationally Certified Instructor for the Wells Fargo Academy where he has assisted in writing and facilitating sales skills curriculum.  Steve has presented his Mortgage Sales Practices to many companies nationwide, including Wells Fargo, Real Living Mortgage, Home Services Lending, American Southern Mortgage and many others.

Steve’s many awards include national recognition in Wells Fargo’s LEADERS CLUB for 8 consecutive years as wells as a PRESIDENT’S CLUB award for being a top 10 Manager with Wells Fargo nationally.

A graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with an education in Theatre Arts, Steve resides in Bel Air, Maryland with his wife Carla, his 17 year old Daughter Samantha and his 13 year old son Garrett.

Jon Coile is the CEO & President of Champion Realty, Mortgage, Title & Insurance in Maryland.

Jon graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a degree in Business. After six years in the Navy chasing drug smugglers out of Key West on a jet-engine powered hydrofoil he decided he wanted to do something really exciting so he got into the real estate profession.

After more than 20 years, Jon’s real estate career has included virtually every job description from multi-million dollar agent to CEO. His positions on the corporate ladder have included IT director, VP-New Home Sales, General Sales Manager, EVP, Chief Operating Officer and now Chief Executive. In addition to his roles in the realty side of the house, Jon founded Champion’s affiliated mortgage company in 1995 and operated it successfully until converting it into a Wells Fargo joint venture.

In 1999 Jon and his partners merged Champion Realty into HomeServices of America and became a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. Jon serves on the board of The Realty Alliance. Formerly he served on the board of Realty Alliance Mortgage, the board of the Maryland Association of REALTORS®; and the board of MRIS, Inc., the largest real estate multiple listing system in the country. For the last decade he has been a member of the national operating committee of HomeServices Lending, LLC, the largest of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage’s joint ventures; He holds the Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager (CRB) designation, and received an Eric Hoffer award in 2008 for his best-selling book, “Adventures in the Ditch.”

Chuck Cain has been in the Title Insurance industry since 1977.  He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.  He is admitted to practice in Ohio and Kentucky, several Federal District courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.  He is former chair of the Real Property section of the Cincinnati Bar Association, a former director of the Cincinnati Mortgage Banker’s Association and a recipient of a special citation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development concerning Fair Housing Best Practices.

A native Cincinnatian, he has been a licensed title insurance agent for over 25 years,  was an owner-operator of his own agency for 18 years and corporate officer with LandAmerica for over 10 years.  He has spoken before many state land title associations, state and local bar associations, RESPRO, the National Settlement Services Summit, Title Radio, and numerous other groups and classes on the topic of title insurance and compliance.  His many articles have been published in state land title publications and in October Research publications.

He has been nationally prominent in the creation and management of compliant affiliated and alliance relationships having been involved in the creation of over 400 such relationships in over 20 states.  Having worked in all areas of the title industry and with its customers he brings a great depth of knowledge of all aspects of the real estate industry.

Gerard F. Griesser is one of three owners of Fox Roach / Trident - the owner of Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, Trident Insurance Agency, Trident Land Transfer Company, Trident Mortgage Company, HomEssentials and ETC Inc.  His day to day responsibilities include establishing the vision and providing the direction for all the Trident companies and HomEssentials. 

Prior to 1985, he spent fourteen years in the commercial banking industry in various management positions.  He joined Roach Brothers Realtors in 1985, the predecessor company to Fox Roach / Trident, and established The Trident Group of companies as one of the country’s premier one-stop shopping sources connected to a residential real estate company.

 Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors is the country’s sixth largest home services company.  The company has 56 sales offices, 3,800 plus sales associates and 600 employees operating in the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  In 2009, Prudential Fox and Roach / Trident generated 45,000 transactions with a combined sales volume of $12+ billion.  Real Trends ranks the country’s largest affiliated companies associated with a residential real estate company – Trident Insurance company ranks #2, Trident Land Transfer Company ranks 5th and Trident Mortgage Company ranks 4th.

 Griesser served 5 years as a member of the Board of Directors for Willow Financial Bank.  He serves as the President of Fox Roach Charities, the charitable arm of Prudential Fox & Roach / Trident.  He was the 2003 Chairman of the Real Estate Settlement Providers Council (RESPRO), a national settlement services organization located in Washington, DC.
 
Griesser earned a BA from Villanova and an MBA with a major in finance from Drexel University.  He has taught various college level courses at three institutions within the Philadelphia area.

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and is a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine.  He is also ranked as one of the top 100 bloggers in the world.  Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. where he was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.

Mr. Kawasaki’s eight books include The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.  He has a B.A. from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Guy Kawasaki’s in-depth knowledge of the high-tech industry combined with his years of management experience enable him to address a wide range of audiences.  His particular strength is the ability to quickly understand diverse industries and incorporate his pre-existing knowledge into a highly relevant and customized speech.  He routinely gets rave reviews from clients including trade associations, packaged goods companies, service providers, insurance companies, educational institutions, and technology companies.  He has spoken for organizations including Nike, Audi, Wal-Mart, Sprint, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Saturn, Stanford University, TIE, Calgary Flames, The Body Shop, MIT, Forbes, and Aveda.

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.

Brian S. Levy provides a wide range of business transactional services and regulatory guidance, including significant expertise in banking, mortgage lending ventures, commercial and residential real estate and finance, loan restructuring and workouts, and compliance.

From May 1994 through September 2009, Mr. Levy served as Senior Vice-President, Secretary and General Counsel to Guaranty Bank and its subsidiaries, including Shelter Mortgage Company, LLC. Guaranty Bank is a federally chartered (OTS regulated) savings bank, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, having roughly $1.5 billion in assets and 175 retail bank branches (mostly in supermarkets). Shelter Mortgage Guaranty’s retail home mortgage lending operation and originates approximately $2 billion annually largely through joint ventures with realtors, builders and other financial institutions. In 1996, Mr. Levy developed the unique series LLC structure used by Shelter Mortgage for its joint ventures.

During his career with Guaranty Bank, Mr. Levy was in charge of Guaranty’s construction lending, compliance and risk management areas. Mr. Levy also gained key business and sales insights through his experience managing several of Shelter Mortgage’s joint ventures with realtors. Throughout his tenure with Guaranty he was responsible for the Guaranty’s industry and government relations. Mr. Levy continues to be retained by the Bank as outside counsel.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Levy became associated with the law firm of Rudnick & Wolfe (now known as DLA Piper etc.) in Chicago, Illinois, concentrating his practice in the area of commercial real estate, including purchase and sale transactions, loans and workouts, leasing and brokerage.

Mr. Levy is a member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys and is a frequent speaker on various legal, banking, joint venture, home mortgage lending and real property issues such as affiliated business arrangements, consumer class action litigation, RESPA, title insurance, construction lending and mortgage loan documentation. Mr. Levy was the 2006 Chairman of RESPRO (The Real Estate Services Providers Council) and remains on its Executive Committee. Mr. Levy also served on the American Banker’s Association Government Relations Administrative Committee (term expired October 2009) and was the Vice-Chairman of ABA’s Mortgage Markets Committee. Mr. Levy also serves as Chairman of the Milwaukee Children’s Village, an alternative to the foster care system for large sibling groups.

Jed Mayk is a Shareholder with Stevens & Lee in Philadelphia. Mr. Mayk concentrates his practice in the area of state and federal regulatory compliance for the mortgage, home equity, auto, credit sale and other consumer lending programs of banks, thrifts, credit
unions and licensed lenders and brokers. He also advises clients on federal real estate lending and appraisal rules for depository institutions, OCC and OTS preemption, licensing of operating subsidiaries, exportation and most favored lender issues, DIDMCA/AMTPA preemption, EFTA, electronic commerce and data security and state and federal debt collection laws. He negotiates loan sale and purchase agreements, subservicing agreements, financial services outsourcing agreements and other agreements
relating to consumer lending programs.

Mr. Mayk is a Board Member of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Delaware Valley and a member of the Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He is also a member of the Consumer Financial Services
Committee of the American Bar Association and Chair of the Consumer Law Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Mr. Mayk holds a J.D., with honors, from Rutgers University School of Law and a B.A., summa cum laude, from St. Joseph’s University.

Chuck McNeal serves as Chairman of The Group, Inc. family of companies, which includes The Group Inc. Real Estate, The Group Guaranteed Mortgage, The Group Guaranteed Title, The Group Insurance, and Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial.
The Group Inc. was founded in 1976 in Ft. Collins, Colorado with a unique agent/employee ownership structure and has 6 offices in northern Colorado with over 250 employees and associates. The company has been recognized numerous times by national trade publications as the most productive real estate company in the United States.

A Colorado native, Chuck moved to Fort Collins in 1978 and has founded and operated a wide variety of enterprises in northern Colorado. He joined The Group, Inc. in 1994 as a Broker Associate/Partner, served multiple terms on its Board of Directors and was named Chairman in 2006.

Chuck and his wife Terry are active in many community organizations. They have two adult children and enjoy sports, live entertainment, and home remodeling projects.

Ron Peltier is chairman and CEO of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate and the nation’s second-largest full-service residential real estate brokerage firm.

Peltier has been involved with virtually all aspects of the residential real estate industry.  He began his career with Edina Realty in 1977, and held numerous executive positions within the company, and in 1992 was named Edina Realty president and CEO.

In 1998, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, purchased Edina and Iowa Realty.  Peltier was appointed president and CEO of the newly formed HomeServices of America, Inc., the organization that would lead Berkshire Hathaway into the residential real estate market. 

Peltier has built HomeServices into a national presence in the residential real estate market making it the second largest nationally and has expanded the company to provide integrated real estate services, including mortgage, title and homeowners insurance, and other home related services.

One of the real estate industry’s most recognized and respected leaders, Peltier is a native of St. Paul, and attended the University of Minnesota on a hockey scholarship.  He holds a graduate degree from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

Loretta Salzano founded Franzén and Salzano in 1996 and manages the firm’s state and federal compliance practice.  Loretta recently launched ComplyShare, a mortgage quality control and compliance company.

Loretta spends a great deal of her time advising mortgage lenders, brokers and other settlement service providers on how to increase their business while remaining within the confines of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, other state and federal laws and rules of professional conduct.  Loretta advises mortgage lenders, brokers, banks and other financial institutions and settlement service providers  regarding licensure, fees, disclosures, reporting, advertising, marketing, fair lending and other matters related to their products and services.  She drafts and negotiates contracts, including but not limited to, loan purchase and sale agreements, warehouse line agreements and servicing agreements.  Loretta also assists clients in responding to regulatory examinations and actions.  Loretta is a frequent speaker on mortgage lending and related issues. 

Loretta serves as Legal Counsel to the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia and on the Mortgage Bankers Association of America’s Regulatory Compliance and Legal Issues Committee and its State Legislative and Regulatory Committee.  She has served as the President of the Atlanta Mortgage Bankers Association and a Governor of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia.  Loretta is active in many other industry and professional associations and serves as Chair and Legal Counsel to Rainbow Village, a transitional housing shelter. She is Martindale-Hubbell’s Financial Law Panelist for Ask a Lawyer, and her firm serves as the Georgia editor to Houselaw. 

David Sands is a partner in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, LLP.  The cross-disciplinary transactional team of attorneys led by David represent financial service companies (including banks, mortgage companies and thrifts) in all stages of their corporate and transactional needs, including formation and initial capitalization, regulatory compliance matters, equity and debt offerings (public and private), warehouse and repo financing arrangements, securitizations and other secondary market transactions, strategic alliances and partnerships and mergers and acquisitions.  David has particular expertise in developing, structuring and documenting mortgage products and complex on and off-balance sheet debt and equity financing arrangements to finance those products in a manner that is contextually relevant to a client’s particular needs and industry focus, and in a manner that appropriately reflects the complexities and trends of various State and federal banking and consumer protection laws.   More recently, David has employed his extensive capital markets experience to develop liquidity strategies for the Firm’s financial institution clients in order to respond to events affecting the capital markets and liquidity for mortgage loans.


Phil Schulman has a national practice specializing in a range of matters related to real estate finance, mortgage banking and consumer finance in both the primary and secondary markets, including:
Representing companies in the mortgage lending, title insurance and real estate industries in connection with administrative and regulatory compliance matters, including those involving HUD, VA, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac; Defending companies in connection with governmental audits, investigations and enforcement proceedings, before, among others, HUD, VA, DOJ and FTC with specialties involving defense of False Claims Act, Mortgage Review Board and RESPA enforcement matters; Developing and analyzing proposed business plans, and drafting the related agreements and disclosures, based upon applicable federal and state laws, regulations and rules, such as the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Housing Act, state licensing laws, consumer credit laws, usury laws, unfair and deceptive trade laws and real property laws; Assisting in litigation involving consumer class action lawsuits and commercial claims;
Drafting and negotiating agreements concerning (i) loan broker, loan correspondent and whole loan purchase agreements, (ii) servicing rights purchase and sale agreements, and (iii) servicing and sub-servicing.

Mr. Schulman is the former General Counsel to the Home Improvement Lenders Association and was the former Assistant General Counsel of the Inspector General and Administrative Proceedings Division, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Phyllis L. Shuster is a commercial real estate, regulatory and corporate lawyer with over thirty years of legal experience.  Prior to the February 2010 formation of her firm, Shuster Legal Solutions, LLC, Ms. Shuster was Senior Counsel in the West Palm Beach, Florida offices of Holland & Knight, LLP and a member of the firm’s Real Estate Section and Business Section, in the Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions practice group.  In addition to a diverse corporate background advising general business, manufacturing and real estate companies on day-to-day legal issues, Ms. Shuster has extensive experience with the start up and formation of companies, including the creation of compliant affiliated businesses, joint ventures and strategic alliances under RESPA and state laws.  Ms. Shuster has lectured and written on RESPA matters, including the RESPA Final Rule and with particular emphasis on its applicability to the timeshare industry.  Ms. Shuster is also experienced in the areas of real estate brokerage formation, licensing and compliance matters under state laws, and co-brokerage arrangements, commercial brokerage leasing and listing agreements and property management.  Ms. Shuster also handles general commercial real estate transactional matters, representing both landlords and tenants for commercial leases, and the acquisition or sale of commercial real estate.

Ms. Shuster attended Cornell University where she received a B.S. degree in Industrial and Labor relations in 1976 and DePaul University College of Law where she received her J.D. in 1979.  Ms. Shuster is a member of the Florida Bar and the Illinois Bar. Ms Shuster was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad School of Law teaching contract drafting, negotiating and client counseling skills to second year law students from 1998 through 2001.

David H. Stevens is the Assistant Secretary for Housing at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and xxth Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).  Established in 1934, FHA is designed to promote stability in the housing market by insuring fixed-rate mortgages for qualifying applicants.  Stevens has direct responsibility for oversight and administration of the $600 billion FHA insurance portfolio, which now includes well over 20 percent of the mortgages in the domestic housing market.  Stevens has also responsibility for other programs within HUD, such as multifamily subsidized housing, health care facilities, as well as the regulatory areas of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and manufactured housing.

Stevens comes to HUD with a strong background in housing, including experience in finance, construction, sales, mortgage acquisition and investment, and regulatory oversight. Commissioner Stevens began his journey to HUD at the dining room table, where he listened to stories about the creation of FHA and other efforts to stabilize the housing market from his father, who started as a runner on Wall Street during the depression.  The dining room table soon became the board room as Commissioner Stevens started his professional career with a sixteen-year tenure at the World Savings Bank.  He later held positions as Senior Vice President of single family business at Freddie Mac and then Executive Vice President, National Wholesale Manager at Wells Fargo. 

Prior to his nomination and confirmation as Commissioner of FHA, Stevens was president and chief operating officer of Long and Foster Companies, which include Long and Foster Real Estate and its affiliated businesses, including mortgage, title insurance, and home service connections. Stevens is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder.  He and his wife, Mary, have four children. 

Terri Stickle is a Vice President of Business Development for Rose & Womble Realty in Virginia Beach, VA.   Terri’s main responsibilities include the profitability of their in-house mortgage company, Advance Mortgage, in-house title company, Advance Title, relocation department, customer service department, technology and internet services, and referral company.  Rose & Womble Realty has 10 offices and 550 agents.  Terri has been with the firm for 25 years. And in the real estate business for 27 years.

Terri has received the Leading RE Presidential Award and has served on the Hampton Roads Association of Realtor’s Board, and served as Relocation Chairman for both the Virginia Association of realtors and the Hampton Roads Association of Realtors.  She has memberships in various industry related organizations such as, ERC, RDC and RESPRO and is very active with Relay For Life and is involved in various fund-raising organizations. 

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).


Andrea Zimmerman is a licensed Realtor with over 15 years experience in strategic planning for the real estate and financial industries. She graduated from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota with a degree in Management Information Systems.  

At the beginning of her career, Andrea spent five highly productive years at Ernst and Young, LLP performing information systems and business process reviews for many top 500 companies.  She found this experience to be irreplaceable from the knowledge gained and the broad exposure to the brightest in the industry – not to mention the work ethic learned from the long hours!    

After her stint in public accounting, Andrea was recruited to GMAC-RFC where she gained a great respect for the underpinnings of the primary and secondary mortgage markets.  For the past 7 years Andrea has been an independent consultant and Managing Partner of Strategic Consulting Partners where she has had the opportunity to work with many top real estate, mortgage and title firms.   

One of her main areas of focus - and passions - is partnering with real estate companies to help enhance their cross-sell of mortgage, title and insurance.  Andrea enjoys writing articles and presenting for the real estate industry’s key organizations.  Andrea also published her first children’s book in 2009.  “Do These Pants Make Me Look Fat?”  is geared towards girls aged 6-12 and the adults in their lives.  It's a fun read with whimsical color illustrations that guides the reader through addressing the serious issues of negative self-talk, self-confidence, poor body image and bullying.  You can find it at www.myfatpantsbook.com and amazon.com .  Andrea resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her 9 year old daughter