News, Publications & Events

In what should end a long-simmering legal brushfire, the Ninth Circuit held that the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (“FHFA”) so-called “Federal Foreclosure Bar” preempts Nevada’s homeowners' association lien super-priority statute, thereby protecting Fannie/Freddie mortgage liens from being extinguished through foreclosure of later-recorded homeowners association liens. Berezovsky v. Moniz, et al., 869 F.3d 923 (9th Cir. 2017). Berezovsky purchased a home… Read More

On July 5, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to Provident Savings Bank, FSB (“Provident”) in a class action suit brought against Provident by mortgage underwriters who sued for overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq. The Ninth Circuit agreed with plaintiffs that they had been misclassified by… Read More

With the recently alleged data breach of Equifax, the data security of financial institutions’ customer information is once again in the news.  And once again, as with every data breach, a flurry of lawsuits has followed.  The purpose of this article is to highlight one area of legal exposure with data breaches that applies only to financial institutions. Section 6285… Read More

“Resistance” is now the battle cry of the self-anointed defenders of consumer rights.  But this is nothing new for the California Supreme Court, which for over 20 years has resisted the mandate in the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) to enforce arbitration agreements despite their collateral effect on class actions.  Beginning with Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984), and reaching… Read More

Automobile Finance Law in the Emerging Autonomous and Mobility Ecosystem, (S&W Financial Services Law White Paper) Read More

Joel L. Halverson will be presenting "Leveling the Playing Field - Contract Negotiation Strategies for Design Professionals" on Thursday, February 15, 2018. We are currently experiencing a “seller’s market” in which owners and developers are finding it to be a challenge to find good help. Construction professionals can take advantage of this economic climate to secure important contractual protections we… Read More

David A. Ericksen will present a National webinar for American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) on Thursday, February 8, 2018. In the context of design and construction, coordination is a frequently cited concept and obligation, but it's seldom reduced to a clear and strategic definition or process. In reality, coordination is a complex sequence of communication via multiple stakeholders, with… Read More

Rebecca Saelao and Megan Kelly from Severson’s San Francisco office and Scott Hyman and Rochelle Smith from Severson’s Orange County office attended the American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee’s Winter Conference from January 6-9, 2018 in Park City, Utah. On January 7th, the Committee honored the passing of the Firm’s founder, James Werson, in 2017. Orange County Member-in-Charge, Scott… Read More

In this Article, Severson partners Rebecca Saelao and Scott Hyman discuss the effect of a class action plaintiff’s dismissal of claims or damages at the instruction of class counsel in order to conform their individual claim to the claims of the putative class and, purportedly, to better their chances for class certification. 2017 Claim Trimming Article Read More

Briseno Class Action Article   Read More