Alan Lindeke and Colgate Selden, two attorneys sporting more than four decades-worth of experience combined, formed a new law firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Orange County, Calif. SeldenLindeke LLP will handle regulatory, transactional, enforcement defense, and litigation needs for financial and technology clients across the country.
“Our combination of legal, regulatory, risk and operational experience will enable SeldenLindeke to provide strategic and pragmatic advice more cost effectively than large, legacy firms,” Selden said. “Our firm will not operate under the intense billing pressures and higher profit per partner metrics common in larger law firms today.”
Selden was a founding member of the Treasury team that helped to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), then later was a senior counsel in the bureau’s Office of Regulations. While at the CFPB, he was involved in rulemaking efforts including TRID, home equity lines of credit, loan originator compensation, ATR-QM, Regulation P, and debt collection rules. His resume also includes time as partner with Alston & Bird, LLP and head of regulatory, level, compliance, and risk and Promontory MortgagePath. Selden also served as comptroller of the currency and was a partner at BlankRome LLP.
Lindeke worked in every aspect of mortgages, from origination to closing, and headed his own mortgage brokerage before beginning his legal career. In the last 11 years, he has served as chief compliance counsel for mortgage lenders, fintechs, financial institutions, and diligence providers. Most recently, he was the general counsel and chief legal officer at Change Lending LLC. Lindeke will continue working for Change Lending as outside general counsel.
“The firm is well positioned to address the current needs of our clients in any given market and regulatory environment,” Lindeke said. “Today, that might be special purpose credit programs, fair lending, and privacy matters. Tomorrow, it could be helping clients establishing new business models that increase access to credit in underserved markets, or new technologies to further automate application and underwriting processes to deliver higher quality, more efficient outcomes.”