Real
Estate Practice
When dealing
with an issue affecting real estate, it is essential to engage
experienced legal counsel. The Firm routinely represents both
commercial clients and individuals in all types of transactions
affecting real property and improvements, including purchases
and sales, construction, mortgages and foreclosures, leases,
zoning and property management. The Firm has represented clients
in commercial real estate transactions involving developed,
to be developed and raw land. The Firm regularly represents
owners, developers, builders and contractors; lenders; and
buyers and sellers in transactions of varying size and complexity.
Matters handled by the Firm also include lease negotiations
assistance in the creation of homeowner associations, evictions,
review of management contracts, and preparation of standard
real estate related contract forms.
Banking
and Lending
The Firm’s banking and lending
practice provides sophisticated legal services to local, regional
and national clients in connection with banking matters throughout
Texas and New Mexico, the greater Southwest and in other regions
of the United States. In addition, the Firm has experience
in cross-border banking issues and has performed cross-border
banking work for lending institutions. The Firm’s experience
in banking runs the gambit from routine representation of
lenders and borrowers in everyday lending transactions to
sophisticated lending transactions. The Firm also has experience
in handling problem loan situations and workouts, both as
creditor's and debtor's counsel.
The Firm has
an efficient, competitive and proven practice in the preparation
of loan origination documentation in Texas and New Mexico.
The Firm also handles foreclosures of deeds of trusts and
mortgages.
Foreclosure
Practice
The Firm has
provided institutional and private lenders with mortgage default
servicing since its inception. Prior to establishing the Firm,
the firm’s principal practiced with a firm in downtown
El Paso for almost eight years during which he serviced a
large client by providing foreclosure services throughout
Texas. Being a non-judicial foreclosure jurisdiction, the
Firm can provide foreclosure services in every county in Texas.
Moreover, because of the Firm’s extensive use of internet-based
technologies described in more detail below, it is able to
provide competitive pricing and foreclosure services in a
virtually paperless environment.
The Firm uses a customized software system
through a third-party contractor to handle the Firm’s
mortgage default servicing, processing and reporting. The
software package was developed specifically for foreclosure/bankruptcy
and other default servicing tracking and processing, utilizing
Microsoft SQL server database and the Microsoft VBA and .NET
development environments. All reporting and tracking is done
internally without reliance on third party tools, so that
customized reporting can be accomplished without limitations.
All activity on each file is tracked and all correspondence
and other written and/or electronic communications are stored.
This facilitates individual loan chronology reporting and
timeline management, as well as internal adjustments, reallocations
and/or enhancements.
The hardware and software used in the process
are designed with reliability and strict timeline performance
and reporting requirements. The database operates under a
full recovery model with transaction log backups. Full backups
of the transaction log occur every four hours and full database
backups every night, at two different backup locations. An
audit trail system is used to track all changes. The current
hardware and software architecture can handle a significant
increase in foreclosure volume without any changes. The Firm’s
third-party contractor has been operating with a database
driven default-tracking system since 1995.
The system
is developed internally by the service provider’s own
contractors. Consequently, the service provider has the knowledge
and resources to accommodate any automated process and reporting
requirements and to accommodate new loss mitigation strategies.
Because the service provider’s default system is not
dependent on a third party vendor, changes to the software
can be made quickly and efficiently. The system is designed
to accommodate individual requirements of banks, servicers
and so forth. It handles the unique process steps required
for foreclosures, and bankruptcy processing of home equity,
reverse mortgage, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, VA, and FHA loans.
Corporate
and Business Practice
In today’s
competitive environment, the law affects virtually every aspect
of business, from start-up, to financing, to daily operations.
The Firm has the expertise to help its clients navigate through
these complexities in multi-jurisdictional settings. The Firm
provides representation to every kind of business entity,
including corporations, nonprofit organizations, sole proprietorships,
partnerships, limited partnerships, joint ventures, limited
liability companies and professional associations. The Firm
assists clients in selecting the most appropriate form and
jurisdiction for their business enterprise, and provides counsel
in such areas as formation, business planning, purchase of
businesses and assets, contract negotiations, loan negotiations
and documentation, mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations,
dissolutions, and compliance with local, state and federal
statutes, regulations and regulatory authorities.
Immigration
Practice
The Firm’s
immigration practice focuses on nonimmigrant, employment and
family-based immigrant visas. Conveniently located at the
main international gateway between the United States and Mexico
and Central and South America at the cosmopolitan cities of
El Paso, Texas, and Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, the Firm
is minutes away from the new consulate general building in
Cd. Juarez, one of the largest consulates in the world. The
Firm’s proximity to the border allows the Firm’s
immigration practice to better complement its business practice
such that individuals and businesses may operate more successfully
in a business environment where capital and commercial opportunities
have no borders.
