Founding Partner Jennifer Dickenson
Interviewed by Atlanta's Daily Legal Newspaper
on HomeBanc Failure 'Lessons Learned'

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (Oct. 11, 2007) — Twice during the last two weeks of August metro Atlanta's newspaper for the legal community, the Daily Report, turned to Dickenson Gilroy founding partner Jennifer L. Dickenson for her expert commentary on the HomeBanc Corp. bankruptcy filing.

“Although HomeBanc's failure had no effect on us,” said Ms. Dickenson, “we were prepared to respond to the needs of real estate agents who were using our firm for closings if a problem arose.”

According to the Daily Report at least a dozen metro Atlanta law firms had checks from HomeBanc bounce prior to the mortgage company's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, Aug. 9.

In a copyrighted article written by Andy Peters and published by the Daily Report on Thursday, Aug. 23, Ms. Dickenson noted that law firms routinely accepted HomeBanc corporate checks rather than wire transfers to fund its loans.

“Now some law firms are requiring 100 percent wired funds from everybody… lenders, buyers, even other attorneys,” Ms. Dickenson was quoted as saying. “There is a really high sensitivity right now to how we get the money into our accounts.”

In a Daily Report copyrighted article published a week earlier on Thursday, Aug. 16, Ms. Dickenson observed that HomeBanc was among a small number of mortgage lenders who issued company checks to cover loans rather than transferring funds via wire. “Having that check from HomeBanc had never been a problem before,” she was quoted as saying.

“People discredit real estate closing attorneys, but there is an enormous amount of liability in what we do. The reality is, we deal with hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars,” the Daily Report wrote in quoting Ms. Dickenson.

In its Aug. 24 coverage, the Daily Report discussed the terms of the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) with Ms. Dickenson and summarized her comments noting that, “Agents are supposed to give independent advice to their buyer or seller clients. RESPA was passed in 1974 in response to agents, lenders and title insurance companies that were paying kickback to steer business to each other.” The paper also said that HomeBanc has not been accused by its creditors of violating RESPA in court filings made with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

To read the entire Aug. 24 Daily Report article, titled "Lawyers learn from lender's demise" please click here.

About Dickenson Gilroy LLC

Dickenson Gilroy is the largest women-owned law firm in Georgia. The firm, whose primary practice areas include residential and commercial real estate and litigation law, opened its doors on May 1, 2007.

In addition to its Alpharetta corporate office the firm has office locations throughout metro Atlanta. They include Buckhead, East Cobb, Gwinnett, Marietta, Northlake, Peachtree City, and Perimeter Center. DG Law also plans to open a Midtown Atlanta office in December 2007. 

For more information on Dickenson Gilroy visit www.dickensongilroy.com

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