Joel Israel oversees about 500 mortgage foreclosure-related lawsuits as the assistant GC at mortgage giant Ocwen Financial.
Using innovative research techniques and an aggressive litigation strategy, Israel and his outside counsel at Womble convinced California judges to reject two such lawsuits. In doing so, they sent a message that frivolous litigation would not be tolerated. Ocwen and Womble are also are finalists for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
Israel found time for Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, who asked him about his views and expectations of outside counsel, lessons learned from the pandemic and, as a proud Duke alum, how he has coped with the retirement of the school’s legendary basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
Texas Lawbook: For litigation matters generally, how do you go about hiring outside counsel?
Joel Israel: Given the volume of individual cases across the country we handle both for ourselves and the investors whose trusts we service, we generally have specific law firms in each state that are assigned cases; and then for class actions and significant litigation we approach on a case-by-case basis and take into account a range of factors. For Beatty and Castanon, the original firms assigned regularly do high-quality work for us around the country, and in both instances, the circumstances and posture of each when I took them over just pointed me to reach out to Kristin and Womble to refocus the cases for summary judgment and/or potential trials. I don’t do it often, but I’ve never regretted the occasional instance where I’ve made that decision.
Lawbook: As a Duke alum, how heartbroken were you when Coach K retired?
Israel: I was surprisingly at peace! I first became a Duke fan when I was nine, when the Final Four came to Dallas in 1986, so he’s been a central figure for just about as long as I’ve been a sports fan, and as a college sports reporter I got to spend a little time with him during college. But Duke fans knew this inevitably was coming at some point, and when I saw the news alert on my phone, I really just was happy that he was going out with his health intact and able to enjoy his retirement.
To read Mark Curriden’s full profile of Joel Israel click here.
Lawbook: What do you see as the biggest challenges for in-house and GCs of Texas companies going forward?
Israel: I think a big challenge a lot of us have is assessing just how much the pandemic changed the legal community and for our purposes how it’s going to impact the dynamics between law firms and corporate legal departments going forward. After a few years of virtual work, particularly for young associates, we know it’s difficult for law firms and a number of lawyers who reevaluated their futures during the pandemic to return to the old normal. But the ongoing fluidity of that re-sorting, juxtaposed with salary increases across a significant portion of big law firms that creates its own set of pressures, comes at a time when companies are further looking for ways to cut costs and continually handle legal work more nimbly and creatively. When you add in broader economic uncertainty for the year ahead, the enduring challenge is continuing to foster those relationships while getting high-quality representation at sustainable rates. Fortunately, the law firms we work most closely with understand those challenges, even as they face their own.
Lawbook: How important is diversity in hiring outside counsel and what do you require of outside counsel regarding diversity?
Israel: It’s one of our most important factors. We require our regularly-used firms to complete an annual diversity survey, have made referral decisions particularly in larger cases based on the diversity of the teams and have made clear to our firms that we want diversity not just on the associate level but on the partner level and in the relationship partners with whom we interact on a big-picture basis. That’s a consistent belief held by the leadership team in our department.
Lawbook: How important is a law firm’s pro bono and public service efforts when you are looking to hire firms?
Israel: It’s another important factor we consider, but I’d add to that the reality we also pay attention to the legal background of the lawyers on a proposed team — for instance those lawyers who joined a firm after doing public interest work. I can think of several instances where I know I took into account attorneys’ public interest backgrounds that spoke to their experience and the perspective the work gave them.