[Alexandria, VA| Wednesday, September 29, 2021] Lyons McCloskey, a financial services consulting group is announcing that they are partnering with Catalyst Business Services, LLC regarding the Standardized Law Firm Audit and Law Firm Readiness Assessment tools created and managed by the company.

The Audit tool is a standardized audit of law firms in default servicing and was developed over the course of many years through an MBA Loan Administration Committee work group, with the support of the GSE’s and other oversight agencies. The development of the Standardized Law Firm Audit was a cooperative effort with participation from MBA, ALFN, USFN, and over 20 servicers and law firms in the default servicing industry. The audit was created utilizing the policies established by FNMA, FHLMC, CFPB, and the OCC and provides servicers with increased efficiency and cost-savings. This audit product allows servicers and lenders to have access to a comprehensive standard audit, and the law firms have the benefit of their audit being accessible by multiple servicers.

The Readiness Assessment is a post-moratorium look into law firm readiness and viability moving forward, with the same high standards and comprehensive review of each firm as provided by the audit.

“All parties find efficiencies and economies of scale in these products”, stated Mark Atencio, of Lyons McCloskey, “…the industry has been anticipating the arrival of a thorough and objective standard audit of their law firm partners and through years of work with multiple servicers, that product is now available. Adding the partnership with Catalyst to develop business and grow awareness around both the Standardized Law Firm Audit and the Law Firm Readiness Assessment, was a natural next step due to their extensive network and commitment to finding adaptable and cost-effective solutions to common problems in the default servicing industry”. 
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About Lyons McCloskey- For over fifteen years, Lyons McCloskey has been providing specialized consulting to the residential mortgage loan servicing industry. Bob Lyons, the company’s founder has worked with the GSE’s, large banks and servicers for over 25 years. He worked with FHA on many policy initiatives relating to loss mitigation, foreclosure oversight, and claims management. In addition to The Standardized Law Firm Audit and the Law Firm Readiness Assessment, Lyons McCloskey provides consulting expertise on process improvement, quality assurance, gap analysis, and policy and procedure review for residential mortgage servicers. The company is headquartered in Alexandria, VA. For more information, please contact Lisa Drew, COO at ldrew@lyonsmccloskey.com or Mark Atencio, Executive Vice-President at matencio@lyonsmccloskey.com 

 “The Chains of Habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken”
Warren Buffet 2018

• Purposeful Social Media- Away with the old and ring in the new! You may have a habit of layering on content in social media, but is it purposeful or planned? Do you have a content plan for each quarter that aligns with your marketing and business development strategy? 
• Zigzag Thinking - In marketing and business development, knowing your competition and your audience is vital. How well do you know your audience? Do you know who your competition is? Just because another company operates in your market or in your state, does not mean that they are YOUR competition. It is easy to be caught following not leading, leaving your firm a step behind and lost in zigzag thinking.
• Prep, then prep again! - One thing we learned in 2020 is that you need to be prepared for anything, including potential volume in 2021. Do you run tests of all operations? Do you know your points of failure? And importantly is your tech, process and operation the best it can be? Yes, clients will look under the hood and seek well trained staff and efficient operations.

At Catalyst we have over 40 years of cumulative experience in law firm process management, operations management, marketing, and business development. We believe that every firm can improve their brand and operations for better ROI and to attract and retain more clients! Let us help you build better habits in 2021. 

Posted By Elizabeth A. Potter, MBA - Partner and Senior Consultant