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Ben Perry’s practice spans the spectrum of legal services. On the litigation side, Ben represents clients at the trial and appellate level against a wide variety of claims in state and federal courts. His practice primarily concentrates on complex civil litigation, products liability defense, and representing financial institutions and mortgage companies in civil litigation. As part of the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group, he defends mortgage servicers, investors, and related entities against numerous state and federal law claims arising out of lending and loan servicing practices, including alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and various claims relating to the sale of bank-owned real estate. Ben also has substantial experience defending banks and investors in hundreds of cases related to homeowner’s association (HOA) superpriority liens, and he has represented a company’s founder and CEO facing claims brought by the SEC for alleged embezzlement of company funds.

In-house counsel faced with a data breach encounter a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, it is critical to determine the cause of the breach and generate a plan to bolster security systems to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future. On the other hand, these same reports, usually performed by third-party

In a landmark decision released this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court finally answered the question that has been at the heart of Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation for decades – what constitutes an autodialer? – and the decision is a huge win for TCPA defendants. In Facebook v. Duguid, the Supreme Court unanimously

The Enforcement Blitz Continues: CFPB Signals Return to Aggressive Enforcement of Vague UDAAP RestrictionsCFPB Acting Director David Uejio wasted no time in signifying the changes to come under the Biden administration. Last week, the CFPB rescinded its January 2020 “Statement of Policy Regarding Prohibition on Abusive Acts or Practices” (2020 Policy), which provided the financial services industry a much-welcomed reprieve from enforcement actions for unfair, deceptive,

CFPB Files Suit Against Payment Processor for Its Customers’ Alleged ScamsOn March 3, 2021, the CFPB filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against BrightSpeed Solutions, Inc., a third-party payment processor, and Kevin Howard, BrightSpeed’s founder and former chief executive officer. In its complaint, the CFPB alleges that between 2016 and 2018, Howard and BrightSpeed knew or

Why Your Cannabis Contracts May Be Unenforceable Even if State Law Says OtherwiseFew industries promise rapid growth equal to that of the cannabis industry, with one study projecting the industry could reach $30 billion in annual sales by 2025. This growth continues to accelerate as more states legalize cannabis for medical or adult use. But until federal cannabis laws are reformed, the illegality of cannabis at

Untouchable No More: Reinforcements Arrive for TCPA Defendants Battling the FCC’s Aggressive Expansion of the StatuteThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was signed into law almost 30 years ago when around 3% of the population owned cellular telephones and no one had heard of – let alone sent – a text message. Since that time, the legislature has substantively amended the TCPA only once to create a government debt exception.

Bad News for Sixth Circuit Creditors as Court Adopts Expansive Definition of Autodialer with Supreme Court Review PendingThe Sixth Circuit has weighed in on an issue with the power to change the course of TCPA litigation nationwide: What constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system, more commonly known as an autodialer? Since the FCC’s 2015 order, which stated that any device with the potential ability to generate a list of numbers was

The Rapidly Changing Fair Housing Landscape: HUD Rescinds Obama-Era AFFH Fair Housing RuleThe Trump administration recently announced that it has rescinded Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), an Obama-era regulation intended to ensure compliance with the Fair Housing Act (FHA). AFFH requires cities and towns to analyze local housing data for discriminatory patterns and submit plans to address those issues in order to continue receiving federal funding. This

If You Thought the TCPA Was on Its Way Out, Think Again: The Supreme Court Expands Its Prohibitions InsteadOne of the most aggressive attacks on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) recently made its way to the United States Supreme Court in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants. With Chief Justice John Roberts questioning why “the whole statute shouldn’t fall” during oral argument, hopes were high that the TCPA might finally

Federal Reserve Implements Aggressive Liquidity Campaign as Growing Corporate Debt Threatens to Exacerbate COVID-19 Economic TollIn response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, Congress recently approved a $2 trillion stimulus package in an attempt to offset the potentially disastrous economic effects of COVID-19. Meanwhile, central banks are implementing increasingly drastic measures aimed at preserving the availability of capital during the looming recession, which appears increasingly imminent as the global economy remains