44ag/11 - Maryland Courts

commercial litigation practice. He remained with that firm until
1998, doing primarily commercial litigation and some
transactional real estate and corporate work. In 1998, Mr.
Chapman became a solo practitioner, operating as the Chapman
Law Group LLC (“the Firm”). The majority of his practice
involves commercial real estate transactions, particularly the
purchase, sales, and leases for shopping centers and other
commercial parcels, with some associated litigation practice.
In approximately 2007 or 2008, following the dramatic
decrease in commercial real estate work, Mr. Chapman’s
practice expanded to include loan modification work that was
initially referred to him through existing clients. In contrast to
his prior commercial practice, this work was mostly residential.
The loan modification work increased, as residential
defaults “skyrocketed” in the 2008-2009 time frame. In Mr.
Chapman’s experience, lenders were inundated with
modification requests, and navigating the process was a
challenge. He noted that lenders were “understaffed,
overworked, and started to compartmentalize.” It was
particularly difficult to deal with the same person within a bank,
or to get a consistent approach or a response to a modification
request. Around 2008, Mr. Chapman became acquainted with
James Weiskerger, who was also regularly involved in loan
modification work. Mr. Weiskerger is not a lawyer. Mr.
Chapman indicated he believed Mr. Weiskerger had a good
reputation in the loan modification field. Following several
meetings and discussions concerning mutual business
opportunities, the two agreed to enter into a consultant
agreement. Mr. Chapman testified that he did not consider loan
modification work to be legal work. He also readily
acknowledged that a major impetus for the arrangement was a
change in the law that prohibited non-lawyers from collecting
fees up front for loan modification work. In his opinion these
new provisions expressly excluded lawyers from this
prohibition. Therefore he discussed a business arrangement
with Mr. Weiskerger where Mr. Chapman’s firm would manage
the loan modification work, utilizing Mr. Weiskerger’s firm, JW
Capital, LLC (“JW Capital”), as a consultant.
Ultimately, a Consulting Agreement was executed on
November 1, 2008 between JW Capital and the Chapman Firm.
Pursuant to that Agreement, JW Capital was to use its best
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