EMERGING ISSUES TRACK: Navigating Regulatory Waters – Insights from Former Regulators (CLE 1.0)

Vice President, Managing Regulatory Counsel, Mortgage Bankers Association

Justin Wiseman is Vice President and Managing Regulatory Counsel in the Public Policy and Industry Relations department at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Justin manages MBA’s Regulatory Policy team that covers legal issues, trends in litigation, regulatory compliance matters, and servicing as well as provides strategic direction to advance MBA member priorities on regulatory and legal matters. This team also analyzes pending rules and legislation, provides comments on behalf of MBA members on pending rules or regulations and helps develops MBA’s posture towards innovation and innovation policy. Prior to this, he staffed MBA’s Loan Administration committee, providing policy development insights and working with stakeholders to advocate on behalf of the industry.

Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Chase

Samuel Racoosin is a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA. He is the lead attorney for the residential Loan Servicing performing, customer assistance and default legal teams. He is principally responsible for providing legal advice to the residential mortgage loan servicing business. Before joining JP Morgan Chase, Racoosin was Associate General Counsel at Fannie Mae. In that capacity, he was responsible for providing legal advice to the US Treasury in connection with the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program. Samuel previously served as Associate General Counsel for Fannie Mae’s single family mortgage business, providing advice on new products, eMortgage initiatives, and loss mitigation. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Samuel was Associate General Counsel of North American Mortgage Company, a national mortgage banker. Racoosin has a Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.

Former Acting General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Ben served as Acting General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development from December 2024 through January 2025 and was the Principal Deputy General Counsel at HUD since May 2022. Ben supervised a 400+ lawyer legal department advising the Secretary and senior Department leadership on wide variety of program, litigation, enforcement, legislative, and ethics issues. As Principal Deputy, Ben had specific responsibility for Congressional oversight, coordination of oversight responses with other agencies, interaction with the Office of Inspector General, and was involved in HUD’s major enforcement and litigation matters. Prior to joining HUD, Ben was Managing or Co-Managing Partner of Buckley LLP, a financial services and white collar/complex civil litigation firm, starting in 2009. Ben led Buckley’s growth from approximately 40 attorneys in two offices in 2009 to an AmLaw 200 ranked law firm with approximately 125 attorneys in five domestic and one international office. While leading the firm, Ben maintained active financial services and white-collar practices representing banks and financial services companies in federal and state enforcement investigations, examinations, and litigation, as well as in complex civil and class action litigation. He also conducted corporate internal investigations and represented companies and individuals in criminal and civil enforcement matters, including multi-national Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations. Ben began his legal career in 1990 at Skadden, ultimately becoming a partner during his 17 years there. He had a two and a half year interlude from Skadden at small boutique litigation and enforcement firm, Iraola and Klubes. During his time at Skadden, Ben was involved in a variety of high-profile matters, including work on teams representing the IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. bankruptcy trustee (5th largest bank failure in U.S. history), the Senate Ethics Committee in “Keating Five” hearings, and former Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger in the Iran-Contra prosecution.

Regulatory Relations & Public Policy, Newrez LLC

McArdle heads up regulatory affairs and public policy for Newrez, the fifth biggest originator and third largest primary servicer in the US. In this role he works with regulators, trade groups, consumer groups and other stakeholders on mortgage policy. McArdle was the Assistant Director of Mortgage Markets at the CFPB from 2017 to February of this year, where he led a team that worked closely with industry and other stakeholders to help inform the Bureau and the public on current and future trends in the mortgage origination and servicing markets. At the Bureau, he led efforts to modernize HMDA reporting, update the Ability to Repay/Qualified Mortgage rules and spearheaded the Bureau’s mortgage response to COVID-19. Before CFPB, McArdle was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role, he led the office that managed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), including its remaining investment and homeownership preservation programs, and advised the Department on access to credit issues. He also held previous roles at Treasury including Chief Homeownership Preservation Officer and Director of the Hardest Hit Fund. McArdle has played a key role in policy development for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), and oversaw the creation of the Hardest Hit Fund, which provided funding to state housing finance agencies (HFAs) for foreclosure prevention efforts.

Former Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The Honorable Rae Oliver Davis is a distinguished former government official with over two decades of experience in public service, oversight, and strategic leadership. Her leadership roles include serving as the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2019 to 2025, where she led a team of more than 540 oversight professionals. She also chaired the Professional Development Committee for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and was a member of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC). Before her tenure at HUD, Oliver Davis was the Chief Investigative Counsel at the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). She also worked as an attorney at the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, prosecuting complex federal cases. Earlier in her career, she was an Assistant Attorney General in Tennessee and notably contributed to a high-profile investigation into the 2000 Bridgestone/Firestone tire recall.