Hinshaw & Culbertson, a national law firm, today announced that Lauren Campisi, Stephen P. Strohschein, Stewart Spielman, Eric J. Simonson, and Heather LaSalle Alexis have joined the firm as partners to further support the firm’s Consumer Financial Services and Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice groups. Formerly with McGlinchey Stafford in Louisiana, the group has extensive experience advising financial services companies and institutions nationwide on issues including federal and state regulatory compliance, lending matters, consumer and commercial bankruptcy, workouts, restructuring and distressed debt turnarounds. The group will operate from an office in New Orleans, Louisiana, and their addition expands the firm’s national platform and South Florida roots to a significant new regional market in the South.

Campisi is a national leader in the field of consumer financial services. She advises clients on regulatory and compliance matters and strategy, including product creation, documentation, licensing, federal and state enforcement actions and supervisory examinations, and single-party and class action litigation. Strohschein focuses on a broad array of commercial lending issues including real estate, automotive floor plan finance, asset-based and small business lending. Spielman brings extensive experience in the middle market sector advising clients on commercial debt matters (restructuring, workouts, and turnarounds) including floor plan workouts and front end financing, small business banking, and Small Business Administration (SBA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guaranteed loan programs. Simonson is an experienced trial attorney representing companies in the financial, technology, construction, and other industries in a wide range of commercial contract disputes, lease disputes, and related litigation. He has also extensive class action experience. Alexis advises clients on a wide array of commercial and consumer bankruptcy matters, and brings extensive experience advising clients with commercial debt matters in the energy, middle market and small business banking sectors.

“This team brings a diverse national practice to the firm and adds an important dimension to our multi-faceted financial services platform as well as expanding our national platform in the South,” said Hinshaw Chairman Peter Sullivan. “Our clients have an increasing need for regulatory compliance, bankruptcy and restructuring advice as more companies and businesses confront the uncertainty and economic fallout of COVID-19. With the addition of this team, Hinshaw is truly a one-stop shop for financial services and commercial litigation.”

“I’m proud to welcome such a gifted group of lawyers, including two women leaders in law,” said Hinshaw partner, Executive Committee and Attorney Life Committee member Diane Webster. “I know from talking to the team how much they value the importance of mentoring and talent development, including diverse talent, and I look forward to working with them in that capacity.”

The addition of new capabilities that this team provides include litigation involving creditor rights matters, commercial loan workouts, business restructurings, liquidation of distressed assets, and all aspects of bankruptcy from pre-planning to post-confirmation implementation and bankruptcy compliance advice, all areas which are expected to experience significant activity beginning in Q4 and going into 2021 and beyond.

“We are excited to be joining a national firm with such a highly regarded reputation in the consumer financial services space with a clear vision, strong leadership and a commitment to growth,” Campisi said. “Together with my Hinshaw colleagues, I look forward to growing a preeminent national regulatory compliance practice with partners who have deep experience with mortgage lending and servicing, TCPA, TILA, FDCPA, FCRA, RESPA, UDAAP, and related federal and state consumer and financial services laws and regulations.”

“We continue to look for opportunities to expand regulatory compliance capabilities,” said Hinshaw partner Vaishali Rao, lead of the firm’s Regulatory and Compliance Counseling initiative. “Lauren is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished regulatory compliance practitioner, and I’m excited to collaborate with her.”

The team collectively is currently advising clients on compliance with federal and state laws and emergency orders related to COVID-19 relief.

“Our practices are really complementary with Hinshaw’s capabilities, and the firm’s national platform. The firm’s presence in New York, Boston, Florida, California, and Chicago brings the potential of great opportunity in key markets,” said Spielman. “We believe that with Hinshaw’s resources we will be able to expand our restructuring and commercial lending practice, in particular our work with all aspects of floor plan lending, including troubled dealer workouts.” 

Lauren E. Campisi

Campisi, a leading national consumer financial services lawyer, represents a diverse and broad range of financial services providers. She provides strategic, practical advice on federal and state law compliance matters regarding licensure, product creation, documentation and servicing, due diligence, and vendor management, as well as federal and state enforcement actions and supervisory examinations and single-party and class action litigation. Campisi’s clients include national and state-chartered banks, national mortgage lenders and servicers, automotive and personal property finance companies, installment lenders and online lenders. She is also deeply experienced in counseling companies on issues related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and has filed multiple petitions before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on TCPA issues. She routinely provides guidance on the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), prohibitions against unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices (UDAAP) and state lending, licensing and debt collection laws and regulations.

In 2018, Chambers USA selected Lauren as a Recognized Practitioner in the field of national consumer financial services compliance, one of only thirty-four attorneys to receive individual recognition and in 2019 and 2020, Chambers recognized Lauren as an ‘Up and Coming’ attorney within the industry. Campisi is also a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, Secretary of the Governing Law Committee of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, Vice-Chair of the Truth in Lending Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Consumer Financial Services Committee and Chair of the Bank Counsel Committee of the Louisiana Bankers Association. Campisi was selected as a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow (LCLD) in 2011, the inaugural year of the program. She received a B.B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Loyola University New Orleans and a J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Stephen P. Strohschein

With almost four decades of experience, Strohschein’s national practice focuses on a wide range of matters in the banking and commercial lending sectors, with an emphasis on floor plan lending. His team represents major automotive captive lenders and banks across the country. In addition, he advises lenders on commercial loan origination, workouts, foreclosures, collections and bankruptcy issues and has litigated commercial lending cases before numerous federal and state courts.

Strohschein is qualified as a specialist in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification and his numerous accolades include being selected among The Best Lawyers in America® Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Litigation – Bankruptcy 2006-2020. He received his B.S. in Business from Louisiana State University and his J.D. from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Previously he served as a law clerk to the Honorable LeRoy Smallenberger in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Stewart Spielman

With a focus on commercial debt restructuring in the middle market, Spielman represents institutional lenders and equity funds on a wide variety of front end and back end commercial lending matters, including floorplan documentation and closings, as well as, complex commercial loan workouts, restructurings, modifications and enforcement matters. In addition, he advises creditors on best practices and policies for servicing commercial loan portfolios, form development and implementation, as well as ordinary course amendments, extensions, waivers and recapitalizations. He advises creditors on a variety of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including heightened servicing standards, loan deferrals and the Main Street Loan Program.

Spielman is certified as a Business Bankruptcy specialist by the American Board of Certification and the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. He was selected as an LCLD Fellow in 2014. He received a B.S. in psychology from Louisiana State University and a J.D., with a Maritime Law Certificate, from Tulane University Law School.

Eric J. Simonson

Simonson advises businesses on commercial litigation both at the district court and appellate level in state and federal courts throughout the country. He represents companies in the financial, technology, construction, and other industries, in a wide range of commercial contract disputes, lease disputes, and also construction litigation. Simonson represents mortgage lenders and mortgage loan servicers defending claims brought under RESPA, TILA, FDCPA, FCRA and related federal and state statutes. He also represents mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers and other clients in a variety of bankruptcy matters.

Simonson was named “Ones to Watch” by New Orleans CityBusiness in 2017 and is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He received a B.S. in finance from Louisiana State University, an M.B.A. from the University of New Orleans, and a J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law.

Heather LaSalle Alexis

Alexis has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial restructuring and loan workouts involving energy, middle market and small business loans as well as agented and syndicated loans and asset-based lending facilities. She also represents creditors, both secured and unsecured, in all aspects of commercial and consumer bankruptcy cases, including the defense of adversary proceeding.  She also advises clients on various matters involving bankruptcy law including bankruptcy accounting, repossession, and escrow issues. She is well-versed in the enforcement of security interests and other loan remedies in Louisiana state and federal courts involving a range of collateral including real estate, financed and leased equipment, titled vehicles, vessels and UCC collateral.

Previously, she was on secondment in the Special Assets legal department of a large national bank, where she worked with the bank’s distressed loans in the middle market and energy sectors. Alexis was selected as an LCLD Fellow in 2016. She received a B.A. and M.P.A. from Louisiana State University, and a J.D., cum laude, from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.