Phil Schulman was 17 years old when he delivered the first of many speeches.

While in high school in Utica, N.Y. in 1967, he was selected to participate in an oration contest based on his senior thesis, “Is God Dead?”

The prize was $500 and the honor of speaking at graduation before more than 3,000 people.

His father, Paul, a salesman, sat with him as he practiced for the contest and offered to help. Schulman was skeptical.

“It was a 10-to-12-minute extemporaneous presentation with no notes and no lectern,” Schulman told RESPA News. “I was like, ‘Dad, what do you know about giving speeches?’ And he said to me, ‘Look, I don’t give speeches, but I sit in the audience and I listen. And if you want to win that oration contest, you need to remember most speakers are focused on how they sound to themselves delivering the speech, rather than focusing on how the speech sounds to those in the seats listening.’ “

Schulman won the contest.

“That was probably the best single piece of advice I ever got,” he said. “My dad did not finish high school. At an early age, he started working at the grocery store and supported his parents and sister. He may not have had a diploma, but he definitely had a PhD in people. And he had an infinite reservoir of common sense. Without a doubt, most of the important lessons I’ve learned in my life I learned from my father.”

Schulman – who later would literally write the book on RESPA – is known in the settlement service industry for not only his legal expertise, but for his ability to put a crowd at ease with his self-deprecating humor.

Until recently, Schulman was a partner at Mayer Brown’s Washington, D.C. office, representing companies in the mortgage lending, title insurance, and real estate industries on administrative and regulatory compliance matters, with particular focus on defending against enforcement actions brought under the False Claims Act, Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, Mortgage Review Board, and RESPA.

“I think 45 years of doing time sheets is quite enough,” he said. “I’m gonna do some pro bono work, I’m gonna do some charity work, I’m gonna play a lot more golf. I’ll still take on selected matters that are of interest to me.”

The early years

Schulman’s mother, Riva, was a homemaker who went back to work selling dresses in a dress shop when her children were older. Before tests, she would serve him and his younger sister, Esta, fish for lunch.

“She said that fish was brain food,” he said. “I ate a lot of fish during my academic career. And I credit tuna fish sandwiches for getting me through law school and the bar exam. It worked for me.”

Although well-known in the industry for his quick wit and comedic timing, Schulman admits that his sister, a retired public school teacher who has done some stand-up comedy, is probably funnier than him.

“In our house growing up, you had to know how to give a joke and take a joke or you wouldn’t survive,” he said.

Schulman wanted to be a lawyer since he was 9 years old, inspired by the TV show “Perry Mason.”

He went to Northeastern University in Boston for both undergrad – where he majored in political science and history - and law school.

“I went there because we didn’t have a whole lot of money growing up and Northeastern was on a work study program where you’d go to school for three months and work for three months,” he said. “In those days, I was actually able to put myself through both college and law school on these work study programs.”

He briefly thought about becoming a disc jockey and got his broadcast license in New York, but in the end, decided to stick with law.

“I always wondered what would have happened if I’d decided to become a disc jockey,” Schulman said. “But to me, the law is fascinating. It is fluid, it is ever changing. In private practice, no two days are ever alike. And I’ve had hundreds of clients, and no two clients are alike.”

Unique experience

Schulman’s first job out of law school was with the legal honors program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) prosecuting interstate land sales fraud cases. Eventually, he became an assistant general counsel at HUD in charge of the department’s enforcement and compliance programs.

After leaving HUD, he worked at Brownstein Zeidman & Lore in Washington, D.C. for nine years, before spending 21 years at K&L Gates, LLP and then Mayer Brown.

“When I went into private practice, I specialized in representing folks before HUD – mostly in the mortgage space,” he said. “In the 1990s, HUD started to enforce RESPA. Prior to that, they were just giving regulatory compliance advice. Because I was a HUD lawyer, because I represented mortgage companies in enforcement cases, I got calls to do the very first two RESPA enforcement cases, one involving an attorney closing loans and the other a mortgage company.

“I got good results for them. I was also a pretty good entrepreneur and saw an opportunity there.”

Shortly thereafter, he and his legal partner, Laurence Platt, co-authored a book titled, “A Practical Guide to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.” Schulman also wrote dozens of articles for trade magazines and gave as many speeches as he could on RESPA matters.

“I gave speeches about what to expect in connection with a RESPA enforcement action. At that point, of course, there were only two, but hey, it worked. I started to get a reputation as someone who knew RESPA. Before I knew it, I was a RESPA lawyer,” he said.

“If you’re going to be a housing lawyer, specializing in RESPA was just a stroke of good luck, because if you focus on HMDA or ECOA or TILA, your clients are only going to be lenders. You have a finite group of folks that you are marketing to. But if you focus on RESPA, you cover the entire gambit of the settlement service industry. I have been fortunate enough to have represented some of the largest builders in the United States, the largest title companies, the largest banks, the largest real estate brokerage company in the country, vendor management companies, home warranty companies, and I’ve also done work for the major trade associations on RESPA – ALTA, NAR, MBA and RESPRO. RESPA has been very, very good to me.

“In the mortgage space, I’ve handled a number of significant False Claims Act cases in our industry. That has been extremely rewarding and great work. I’ve handled lots of big and small RESPA cases starting with those two in the early `90s. Winning is great, but the losses stick with you forever.”

Schulman added jokingly, “I always tried to win because I knew you got paid faster if you won.”

The jokes

Schulman needed a way to distinguish himself from other attorneys in the field.

“Being someone who tells jokes and being funny is something that has served me well in my career and in my life,” he said. “I learned at an early age that people love to laugh, and if you can make them laugh, they’ll love you. And so for 45 years, every single presentation that I’ve done, I always start with a joke. At first, I did that because I would be nervous standing in front of hundreds of people. Then it got to be a trademark kind of thing and people expected it.

“The thing is, it’s not that easy to do. There are thousands of jokes that don’t offend – but are not funny. And there are thousands of really funny jokes, but they offend. The challenge is to find a funny joke that doesn’t offend. The best way to do that is to make it a self-effacing joke. I have even offered clients a free hour of legal services if they could tell me a joke I hadn’t heard, that I could use in a presentation.”

Schulman said he has also used jokes during intense settlement discussions to dissipate the tension in the room.

“The hardest thing for me is to have a client tell me a joke. And of course, I know the joke, and of course I can tell it better, but I have to laugh, and laugh like crazy,” he said. “I guess I can let that cat out of the bag now.”

Schulman admitted sometimes his jokes fall flat, like the time a group of FBI agents didn’t appreciate his ribbing of them at a Houston conference.

“Nobody laughed – 150 guys – each with a revolver strapped to their side,” he said. “It was supposed to be a 45-minute presentation and I did it in about 12 minutes. I’ll never forget it. It was horrible.”

Then there was the time his daughters made him look foolish during a speech to the Ohio Land Title Association at The Ohio State University.

“My oldest daughter went to Michigan, and of course Michigan is a great rival of Ohio State,” he said. “Unbeknownst to me, my kids had put the Michigan fight song on my phone and then called me right in the middle of the presentation! Oh my God – everybody’s mouth dropped. You don’t do that in Columbus, Ohio to the Buckeyes. I turned it around by saying, ‘My kids, fooling around. They know I’m a Buckeye fan!’ I got out of there with my life.”

What’s next?

Schulman has always wanted to do presentations on the art of joke-telling to sales reps at sales meetings, and other people inside and outside the settlement service industry.

“The pandemic kind of put those plans on hold,” he said. “But I’ve done it twice. First, I debunk the reasons people think they can’t tell a joke. Then I explain there are three elements in every single joke – the set-up, the anticipation, and the punchline. Transitioning from one to the other is the key. I do a top 10 list of do’s and don’ts for telling jokes. Then I invite the audience to get up and tell their own favorite jokes. I was worried people wouldn’t get up and tell jokes, but it was just the opposite. Then I have the audience rate the jokes. It was a lot of fun. I’m hoping to do these presentations at company sales meetings in 2021.”

Semi-retirement also means Schulman will have more time for his hobbies, including reading non-fiction by authors like Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell, as well as murder mysteries and novels about lawyers.

“I also love baseball,” he said. “On my bucket list is trying to visit as many ballparks as I can when I retire. I have a fairly large, autographed baseball collection. I play golf every weekend. I have played some of the most notable courses in the country and Ireland. I’d like to get to (the Old Course at) St. Andrews.”

He is also looking forward to spending more time with family.

“My wife of 40 years, Harriet, is still the love of my life,” he said.

Schulman credits his wife, a retired clinical psychologist, with keeping him from getting too full of himself despite his success.

“There were times I would tell her about some big case I had when I worked for the government,” he said. “When we finished dinner, she’d say, ‘Where are you going?’ I’d say, ‘I’m kind of tired. I had a big day,’ and she’d say, ‘Everybody in this house puts their dishes in the dishwasher.’ She has prevented me from getting too big a head, so I thank her for that.”

The couple’s two daughters have followed in their parents’ footsteps.

Their oldest daughter, Stacey, is a clinical social worker at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The youngest, Tamara, is an attorney who works for the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  

They also have a 22-month-old granddaughter named Zoe who spends time with them several times a week.

“I have led a blessed life – personally and professionally,” Schulman said. “I have a great family, a great group of friends, and I made a nice living along the way. I like to think that I helped my clients and helped advance our industry. I have always found the practice of law to be a noble profession. You get to help people and help shape the rules that we live by.”