COMMENTS TO THE PROPOSED LOAN PARTICIPATION AMENDMENT ARE DUE BY FEBRUARY 21, 2012.
NCUA HAS ISSUED PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE LOAN PARTICIPATION REGULATION. CLICK ON NEWS FOR A COPY OF THE COMMENT LETTER SUBMITTED BY MESSICK & LAUER AND A TEN MINUTE VIDEO THAT DISCUSSES THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE LOAN PARTICIPATION REGULATION.
Who are we?
We are a law firm located in Media, Pennsylvania . The firm has three attorneys and two administrative staff. Click on the name for more information on our attorneys and administrative staff.
| Attorneys | Administrative Staff |
| Guy A. Messick Brian Lauer Amanda J. Smith |
Mary Lou Super |
What do we do?
We have extensive experience in representing credit unions, credit union service organizations (“CUSOs”), small business clients and clients engaged in commercial and residential real estate sales and lease transactions. Our attorneys have provided services to hundreds of credit unions and CUSOs and we serve as General Counsel to the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (“NACUSO”). We are the liaison for NACUSO to the regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over the services provided by CUSOs and credit unions, including the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Due to our experience and reputation in the credit union industry, we are called upon to be a source of strategic advice for credit unions that want to expand their services to members and/or obtain the advantages of working collaboratively with other credit unions or third party service providers. We are often asked to make presentations at national conferences and individual credit unions. The firm is nationally recognized in the credit union industry as experienced in certain subject areas, which include CUSOs, Incidental Powers, loan participations, privacy laws, and business lending and services.
Locally, we represent small business clients and clients engaged in commercial and residential real estate sales and lease transactions. We have represented the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware County Economic Development Agency, the Delaware County Redevelopment Authority and the Delaware County Industrial Development Agency.
How do we work?
We work as a team. We strive to provide timely, relevant, and useful services to our clients. We endeavor to develop strategic partner relationships with our credit union and CUSO clients. We encourage the use of retainer fee arrangements; a fixed monthly fee for all services within a broadly defined scope of services. We have found that the hourly fee relationship sometimes fosters a transaction type relationship and clients are reluctant to call upon an attorney as each attorney contact generates a fee. We prefer to have relationships with our clients that are collegial and collaborative in nature and find that the use of retainers is conducive to a trusted advisor relationship. In those cases where an hourly fee or one time fixed fee makes it more appealing to a client, we provide services accordingly.
We use technology extensively. We use email to transmit documents. Our retainer clients may access some of our standard agreements, polices and other documents on our web site in a password protected area. We have an annual meeting for our clients to network.
Who are our clients?
Most of our clients are credit unions and credit union service organizations (“CUSOs”). We serve as General Counsel to NACUSO . NACUSO is the national trade association for the credit union industry that provides an education and networking forum on how to work collaboratively through CUSOs and how to provide non-traditional services through a CUSO or through Incidental Powers. In order to reduce potential conflict issues, we do not represent non-CUSO third party service providers to the credit union industry. We also represent business clients and clients engaged in commercial and residential real estate sales and lease transactions apart from our credit union practice.
Why do clients use our services?
We know why our clients use our services, because we ask them in periodic surveys. Our clients tell us they use our services because:
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We know our practice areas very well. We live and breathe credit unions and CUSOs. We know the major service providers to the credit union industry and typically have negotiated our “Messick & Lauer” version of their agreement on behalf of many of our credit union and CUSO clients. This knowledge shortens considerably our clients’ “time to market” for new financial services and new collaborations of every type. | |
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Our industry knowledge enables us to understand the practical business issues facing credit unions and CUSOs. This enables us to better advise our clients on the risk and compliance matters. | |
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With the perspective gained in our nationwide practice, our role as General Counsel to NACUSO and interaction with regulators, we are able to provide to our clients strategic advice as they consider what services to offer and the best model through which to offer the services. | |
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We are service oriented. We return phone calls promptly and meet or exceed our clients’ expectations. |
