Lehman Bankruptcy Judge Peck to Join Morrison & Foerster, which represented the mortgage lender

As U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck leaves the bench, one object is definitely going with him: a Lehman Brothers baby rattle.

Judge Peck, who presided over the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, is joining law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP after stepping down from the Manhattan bankruptcy court. The rattle was purchased at an auction of Lehman memorabilia by a participant in the case who also was involved in the Residential Capital LLC Chapter 11 case, in which Judge Peck served as mediator.

Judge Peck spent thousands of hours over 5½ years working on Lehman’s U.S. bankruptcy case and related insolvency proceedings in courts around the world. More than 42,000 docket entries were filed in the case, the largest ever U.S. bankruptcy filing.

The judge says the rattle bearing the Lehman name and with links to ResCap is…

Congratulations, You Have Been Offered a Loan Modification! Your Loan Servicer Will Soon Foreclose on Your Home!

Do not think your nightmare is over because you have signed and returned a permanent loan modification. Loan servicers are notorious for failing to honor permanent loan modifications. In our experience, they’re all bad, but Bank of America is the worst.

Here’s how to improve your chances of getting your loan modification honored:

First, meticulously follow the instructions provided with your loan modification. No matter how nuanced and ridiculous the instructions are, follow them exactly. For example, one servicer provides a sheet titled “Instructions for Notary,” for which there are multiple versions, but some require any months to be spelled out. If you write “Dec.” or “12” instead of “December,” the servicer will tell you months later that you have not entered into a loan modification because you did not follow…

Regulators fear more bad mortgage practices

You may have gotten a mortgage through the local branch of one of the megabanks, but did you know there’s a good chance your bank turned around and sold the rights to service your loan to somebody else?

The mortgage servicing industry is a big business and growing. Servicers handle the daily operations of your loan, such as collecting payments and calculating late charges. They also track when loans get in trouble, and can even start foreclosure proceedings.

The biggest non-bank mortgage servicer is Ocwen Financial (OCN). It specializes in what it calls “high risk loans.” You’ve probably never heard of Ocwen, but regulators are keeping close tabs on the company.

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This case has two different notes. Here are the endorsements:

Fraud on The Court!!! THIS ASSIGNMENT MUST BE BACKDATED… WE HAVE NO STANDING!!

MERS GETS ITS ASS KICKED IN CALIFORNIA COURT! NOT A BENEFICIARY!

Download Case (PDF)

Elizabeth Warren slams JPMorgan Chase for giving a raise to CEO Jamie Dimon

Speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted how government regulators have much work to do when it comes to changing the culture of Wall Street, pointing specifically to the example of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

The JPMorgan Chase example is simple and instructive: Despite the fact that the megabank spent much of 2013 negotiating with federal regulators, and ultimately was fined billions of dollars, the board decided to increase CEO Jamie Dimon’s compensation to $20 million.

The raise is very real, but it should be kept in mind that Dimon’s annual compensation had beenpreviously slashed in half, to $11.5 million, as punishment for 2012′s so-called London Whale fiasco, which cost the bank billions.

After a reportedly heated debate — in which some members argued Dimon’s compensation should remain at…