Why I became a Foreclosure Defense Attorney focusing on Saving People’s Homes:

Since founding the law firm in Jersey City, I’ve been working as a Foreclosure Defense Lawyer helping families fix or alleviate their burdens in tight spots mostly related to NJ Home Foreclosure. Every day, I become a better Foreclosure Defense Lawyer, offering more options and better advice to my clients in NJ Tax Lien Foreclosures and NJ Mortgage Foreclosures, and I couldn’t be happier with my area of work. I’ve had the great luck and honor of having excellent partners who compliment me in their own passions and areas of practice and this means better results and more resources for our clients. The most rewarding moments are seeing the impact I have on entire families, and how the result of my work leads to a completely different life for many.

My passion for law started in college at Rutgers and it started from the beginning. You see, I didn’t have law school in my cards. My initial intention was to attend a community college and then transfer to a four-year university. Possibly, become a teacher. I had no idea what a University looked like, or what higher education truly meant. It was thanks to support from a special cousin who pushed me to take a hard look at Rutgers. I obtained admission through the Education Opportunity Fund – EOF program (a program designed to give those among us from tough backgrounds a shot at higher education). The moment I walked onto campus, it was like a lightbulb went off.

Free Consultations available for:

• Foreclosure, Bankruptcy, Loss Mitigation, Real Estate, and Chancery Matters.

Education:

• JD – Rutgers Law, Newark NJ
• BA, Political Science, Rutgers, University College

Bar Admission & Licenses

• Admitted to the New York State Bar
• Federal District of New Jersey
• Admitted to the New Jersey State Bar

How I transformed into a great New Jersey Foreclosure Defense Lawyer

I helped found a fraternity, became the youngest student government president in Rutgers’ school history, sat on committees with State Legislators. I even wrote speeches for Cory Booker (that’s a different story!), gave the valedictory address for my graduating class (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qBdz7oBd7Q), and my greatest accomplishment… I found my future wife in a social phycology class. (We now have our first child on the way.)

During my time at Rutgers, I went through a transformation, and started thinking big! I wanted to learn about civil rights leaders, not only here in the United States but abroad – this is what lead to my passion for law, specifically as a Foreclosure Defense Lawyer saving peoples’ homes.  I applied for law school and started in 2009. In school, I started identifying social injustices that I noticed here and there, and through time. Keep in mind I was going through law school right after the great recession took hold, watching trillions flow to big banks with little to no help for millions of hard-working Americans who lost their homes to foreclosure. The culmination of all these things lead to my interest in foreclosure law, working for families, not banks.

The moment I had the chance, I spoke with Derek and Lazaro and we established this firm together. The goal was simple, work for people in tight spots, and make a living doing it. Since our founding, we haven’t looked back. I am excited that every year we continue to grow, and every year we help more than the last. With our new partner Jason Bost, our mission is now in Brooklyn New York. When my friends ask me what I do, I’m proud. I help people – there isn’t a better way to work.

 

Why I became a Bankruptcy Attorney focusing on Saving People’s Homes:

Over the years I have helped people save their homes, get loan modifications, fought their cases for years in both state and federal court, helped them cash out the equity in their homes, walked people through bankruptcy, and rebuilding their credit. (A lot of people think that filing for bankruptcy destroys their credit for the rest of their lives, but that is nowhere near true.  We offer a program to people called “7 steps to a 720 Credit Score.” If you want to see an article on Debt Consolidation Versus Debt Negotiation Versus bankruptcy, click here.) I have personal experience with the areas of law my practice focuses on.

In 2005 I fell off a ladder while working as a Branch Manager for Grainger.  I shattered my ankle and broke my leg.  Eight surgeries later over a 7 year period I walk with a limp and take pain medication on a daily basis. (Aleve gets me through the day, but I can still tell you what the weather is going to be like based on the amount of pain in my leg.)

While I was laid up and unable to walk, I was downsized by my company. Nothing like being fired from your job to make you reevaluate your situation. As I always say, “Bad things happen to good people at the worst possible times.”  Grainger was closing branches all across the United States and I was just one of the thousands of people let go.  The one silver lining to the situation was that because of my disability at the time I was able to negotiate a larger severance package than many of the other people from my branch. (So, I have firsthand experience with employment law. Since then I have helped numerous people negotiate severance packages and worked with others on employment discrimination lawsuits.)

Fortunately, I was also in Law School at the time when things started going sideways for me. But unfortunately, after I broke my leg, I was given bad advice by an attorney who happened to be a Personal Injury Attorney and a family friend. He said that I didn’t have a case. If I had consulted with any other Personal Injury attorney, I would have been told I was able to sue multiple business entities and would most likely be retired in Florida based on the settlements. Instead, I work to protect other people’s rights and make sure they do not get bad advice from attorneys. At this time, I have a very personal connection to Personal Injury law and Product Liability law.

While in Law School, I bought a three-family home near my school in an area that was up and coming. Everything was fine until I moved out. Suddenly rent was coming in late or not at all. I had 5 evictions in a two year period. Tenants managed to get bed bugs, break into my basement, steal the property I had stored there, use baby wipes instead of toilet paper which clogged the sewer lines multiple times flooding the basement, one tenant harassed the other tenants in the building so that both of the other floors left with no notice, another eviction and three empty apartments later, 2 apartments infested with bed bugs, a flooded basement, and being about 6 months behind on payments to the bank. The bank moved to foreclose.

The building and tenants had broken my spirit about ever wanting to be a landlord again. I was now literately laid up with a leg recovering from surgery number 8, trying to secure full-time employment, and had a foreclosure looming over my head. I considered bankruptcy, debt consolidation, and debt negotiation. Made my plan and went forward with it.

 

Core Practice Areas:

• Bankruptcy
• Foreclosure Defense
• Real Estate
• Probate

Free Consultations available for:

• Civil Suits, Personal Injury, Product Liability, Employment and Land Lord Tenant Matters including Mitchel-Lama properties in New York City – I rarely take these types of cases, but I am willing to help point you in the right direction.

Education:

• JD – Rutgers Law, Newark NJ
• MBA in Management Systems – International Business Designation,  – Fordham University, New York, NY – Honors: Phi Kappa Phi – Collegiate Honor Society (Awarded to top 10% of the class.), Beta Gamma Sigma
• MS, Information and Communication Systems – Specialization in System Dynamics Fordham University, New York, NY – Honors: Phi Kappa Phi – Collegiate Honor Society (Awarded to top 10% of the class.), Beta Gamma Sigma
• BBA, Computer Information Systems, University of Houston – Downtown – Honors:  Cum Laude, Dean’s List 6 semesters, Beta Gamma Sigma – Business Honors Society

Career Previous to Practicing Law:

• Intern – Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Newark, NJ
• Intern – Catholic Charities – Immigration, Newark, NJ
• E-Discovery – working with clients from the Top 100 Law Firms and Fortune 100 Companies
• Manager – W.W. Grainger – Responsible for $18 million in annual sales
• Manager – FedEx Kinko’s – Ranked branch 37 out of 1095 for customer service

Volunteer:

• Bowery Mission, New York City, NY
• American Red Cross, New York City, NY
• Street Law Teacher – Alma E. Flag Middle School and Essex County Juvenile Detention Center
• Domestic Violence Advocacy Project at the Essex County Court House

Bar Admission & Licenses

• Admitted to the New York State Bar
• Federal Eastern District of New York
• Federal Southern District of New York
• Licensed New York Real Estate Broker

If you want to know how that worked out I can tell you, but at the end of the day, what was right for me may not be right for you. So, I am not going to give you all the details as everyone needs his or her own plan tailored to his or her situation.

At the end of everything, I was eventually facing a sheriff sale of my property. Fortunately, I was able to get the bank to agree to a short sale by using a realtor and a short sale team that took on the stresses I did not want to deal with. So, instead of having a foreclosure on my record and facing a possible deficiency judgment that would have followed me for the rest of my life, I worked with investors that were able to beat up the bank and eventually buy the property for a lot less than I originally paid for it. Originally the bank was asking for $300,000 but the short sale eventually went through at around $180,000.

I lived rent-free while in Law School, learned a lot about landlord-tenant matters, short sales and real estate in general which helped grow my legal practice since I personally went through those issues. Since then I have seen multiple people in the same situation as I. Many people have been able to save their homes, others have had sold their homes to take out the equity, others have had a short sale of their homes, and others eventually lost their homes at auction as they did not have the money to save their homes or future income.

Over the years, I have found that I enjoy helping people get out of debt, and save their homes. So 50% of my practice is focused on foreclosure defense and debt relief. Another 25% is dedicated to protecting people’s assets through probate planning or probate work in court. I do work for some business related to debt collection from other businesses, chapter 11 bankruptcy, and commercial real estate sales. Another 20% of my work is spread between landlord-tenant, civil suits related to personal injury, and employment law. I rather focus on people than businesses especially when it comes to helping people that find them in a rough spot and their only options are using the court system.

Publications & Appearances

Success after Bankruptcy
Rebuilding your life after Bankruptcy

Why I became a Real Estate and Probate Attorney focusing on Protecting People’s Future Today:

Since founding the firm, I’ve had the pleasure of working with countless families. I take my job as a counselor very serious and take great pride in assisting the families that walk through our doors. Every day, I strive to become a better practitioner and to offer more options and better advice to my clients, and this makes me very happy and it is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

I’ve also had the good fortune of partnering with two great individuals who truly compliment me and both of whom have similar ethical and moral character. They are equally passionate about their own areas of practice and in the end, this is truly what benefits our clients the most. Often our clients’ issues touch on two or more of our practice areas and have the solution in-house without having to involve other firms are of great benefit to our clients. One of the most rewarding moments is seeing the positive impact I have on entire families, and how the result of my work leads to a better life for many.

I can’t say that I always knew I would be a lawyer, in fact, my path to law school didn’t start until much later in life. I went to college and law school in my late 30s and early 40s. You see, I didn’t have law school in my cards, I am the son of a farmer and a homemaker, and becoming a lawyer was not something that seemed possible. When I returned to college in 2002 my intention was to get a college degree and become an executive at a fortune-100 company. (Your typical ‘climbing the corporate ladder dream). I had been in the corporate world for over a decade at that point, and this seemed to be what everyone else around me was doing.

However, soon after I completed my undergraduate degree I decided to continue with my education and realized that a law degree was what I wanted to pursue. It was thanks to the support I received from my family and some of my friends who pushed me to take a hard look at law school. In hindsight, this was one of the best decisions of my life and it allowed me to exit the corporate hamster wheel and pursue my true passion.

During my time in college, I also started to get involved with social justice issues. I joined an advocacy organization called the Latino Coalition of New Jersey, of which I am still a member, and worked on issues relating to immigration and civil rights. My work for this organization was an eye-opener and, in some ways, it was probably the catalyst that propelled me to attend law school. During my initial work in advocacy, I realized that people in power often misuse their position to manipulate the voiceless and powerless to their advantage. Trying to give those people a voice and advocating for them is the reason I enjoy being an attorney.

Core Practice Areas:

Probate

Trust and Estate

Wills, Power of Attorneys and Advanced Medical Directives

Real Estate

Free Consultations available for:

Probate, Real Estate, Foreclosure, Reverse Mortgages, Bankruptcy, Loss Mitigation, and Chancery Matters.

Education:

JD – Rutgers School Law, Newark NJ

BA, Political Science, Rutgers, University College

AA, Business Administration, Brookdale Community College

Bar Admission & Licenses

Admitted to the New Jersey State Bar

Federal District of New Jersey

Why I Enjoy being a Foreclosure Defense Attorney in New York

My strong belief in giving back, and assisting to those in need has kept me involved with community-based programs since starting my academic career 25 years ago. After a successful career in the entertainment industry, working with clients on numerous Grammy-nominated and Grammy award-winning projects (Entertainment Bio for Jason Bost can be found here), I decided to go back to school and I earned an MBA in Technology Management from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a JD (law degree) from Rutgers School of law in Newark. While at Rutgers I studied with and met some amazingly talented individuals, three of whom would later become my partners in the practice of law here at Patel, Soltis & Cardenas. It was through my partners that I was introduced to foreclosure defense and quickly discovered that, through the practice of New York foreclosure defense law, I was once again able to lend a helping hand and continue my desire to “giving back” to individuals in need.

The client in my very first foreclosure defense case had previously hired two different attorneys to assist her with fighting her foreclosure and unfortunately for her, both previous attorneys failed to provide much assistance, with one actually being disbarred, in part for his actions in her case. Needless to say, this client did not have must trust in lawyers at that time. Her niece, who was also an attorney, came with her when she met me for our initial intake, to make sure that our firm’s services were legitimate. After retaining me to work on her case, I was able to aggressively defend against the foreclosure action and I successfully negotiated a loan modification for her which forced the bank to withdraw their foreclosure action and helped my client keep the house she had worked so hard to purchase. Needless to say, she was ecstatic and beyond thankful! There are not many professional accomplishments that provide me with as much joy as helping a client meet the goals associated with their home. Whether they want to fight to keep their home, secure more time in their home in order to develop a long-term plan, or start the process of loss mitigation in preparation to either keep their home or sell their home through a short sale process, whatever the client’s goal, fighting to help them reach it is my job, a job that I thoroughly enjoy.

Practice Areas Include:

• Entertainment law
• Family law
• Bankruptcy
• Foreclosure Defense
• Business Formation (For-Profit & Non-Profit)

Education/Bar Membership:

• Rutgers School of Law, Newark, J.D. ‘13
• New Jersey Institute of Technology, M.B.A. ‘09
• State Univ. of New York at Brockport, B.S. ‘07
• Member, New York State Bar