John D. Socknat

John D. Socknat is Practice Co-Leader of Ballard Spahr's Consumer Financial Services Group and Mortgage Banking Group, Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C., office, and co-leads the firm's Debt Collection Team. John leverages his knowledge and breadth of the business issues affecting the financial services industry and the legal landscape to advise clients on regulatory, compliance, and licensing matters under state and federal law, preparing them for examinations and audits by state and federal regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and defending them in enforcement actions.

John assists clients with designing new products, and with developing compliance programs and implementing and operationalizing new regulations. He also represents clients in connection with loan and servicing rights purchase and sale agreements, servicing and sub-servicing agreements, stock and asset purchase and sale agreements, and joint venture arrangements.

John's clients include mortgage and consumer finance companies, financial institutions, servicers, Fintech marketplace participants, money service businesses/money transmitters, student lenders and servicers, collection agencies, title agencies, real estate brokers, and secondary-market investors, among others.

John is a member of the Industry Advisory Council to the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR), where he served as the Council’s elected Chair for two years, and the SRR Industry Advisory Council, and is a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers.

Admissions

District of Columbia

Virginia

Professional Activities

American Bar Association

District of Columbia Bar Association

Virginia Bar Association

American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR), Advisory Council

SRR Industry Advisory Council

Ballard Spahr's Inclusion Council