The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has summoned lawyers at some of the city’s elite law firms and largest banks for a meeting Wednesday to discuss the low participation in a year-old waiver program meant to allow firms to handle foreclosure cases for homeowners pro bono.
Last May, the New York Fed teamed with The Association of the Bar of the City of New York on a pilot program that would let big-firm lawyers help residents facing foreclosure. At the time of its launch, the program, called the Lawyers Foreclosure Intervention Nework (LFIN), stressed waivers for firms that represent financial institutions; the expectation was most of the lawyers would come from such firms. But a year later, the program’s participants are largely solo practitioners and small firms, with only a couple lawyers from large firms.
