As Mayer Brown Partner Phil Schulman prepares to transition to a new role as senior counsel at the Washington, D.C. firm, his friends and colleagues looked back on the RESPA expert’s best jokes and what he’s meant to the settlement service industry.
“My all-time favorite Phil Schulman schtick is when he was presenting to a group of unsuspecting real estate agents in Louisiana and he asked them all to give him their business cards,” Sterbcow Law Group Partner Marx Sterbcow told RESPA News. “He then held a faux contest where he promised the winner of the contest a brand new Toyota. He then unveiled his contest, which was premised on which real estate agent looked most like their business card.
“The unsuspecting agents were proud as peacocks eagerly handing him their business cards, and then Phil caused shock and awe as he refocused his RESPA presentation towards the agents who were using photos from 40-50 years ago on their business cards. I’m positive that after this contest every single one of those agents made new business cards.
“The winning agent who looked nothing like her business card actually thought she had won a Toyota. Phil threw her a matchbox Toyota car, and she was speechless. Phil often has me laughing hysterically but this was the first time my sides hurt so bad from laughing that it took a week for the pain to subside.”
Katten & Temple, LLC, Of Counsel Brian Levy said he’s been on so many panel presentations with Schulman and has heard his jokes so many times that they just now refer to them by number.
“Like, I could say to Phil, ‘Hey, that reminds me of Number 6,’ and he’d laugh,” Levy said. “But seriously, my favorite is where he says that tickets to the __________ game (fill in your favorite lousy sports team, e.g, NY Jets) are not a ‘thing of value’ under RESPA.”
Levy added, “Somehow, the late Grant Mitchell got the moniker ‘Mr. RESPA’ by working in HUD’s basement writing RESPA opinions in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, but everyone knows who the real Mr. RESPA is today. Sorry Marx Sterbcow, it’s Phil. Phil has earned that not only through excellence in RESPA legal knowledge and interpretation, but even more so through spreading the ‘gospel’ of RESPA beyond lawyers to title insurance, Realtor, lender, and trade association audiences and entertaining us all the while.”
Franzen & Salzano Partner Loretta Salzano said she’ll never forget beating the master in a joke-off at a RESPRO conference.
“My ‘story’ involved my son who was young at the time, Catholic school, nuns and Jesus on the cross,” she said. “Not only was he gracious in defeat, but he acknowledged that he could never steal my joke because of the subject matter!”
Another favorite moment was during a Mortgage Bankers Association super session.
Somehow, Salzano ended up sitting on Schulman’s lap during their presentation, and he didn’t miss a beat.
“To the industry, Phil is FUN! Funny people are smart, and Phil proves it by entertaining us while educating us – even when we might not like the message,” she said. “Those are gifts that I hope he keeps on giving!
“Another one of the things that I found surprising to learn about Phil when I first presented with him is his degree of preparation. While he is hilarious extemporaneously, most would be surprised to see his detailed color-coded notes which guide each of his presentations. I can’t imagine he really needs them, but he always prepares them. I admire that. No matter how good he is, he is not cavalier!”
RESPRO President and Executive Director Ken Trepeta said Schulman has been a friend and mentor since 2006, when Trepeta was the National Association of Realtors’ director of real estate services.
“I think half the time when I am doing a RESPA session of my own, I am hearing his voice in my head and I certainly use his way of explaining a number of things, especially, ‘thing of value,’” Trepeta said. “Nobody tells a joke like Phil, but I have recycled a couple and used them in other settings. My favorite is one of the first. I call it the ‘peas’ joke.”
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr Partner Francis Riley III noted that most of Schulman’s best jokes cannot be told in public.
“Phil is the consummate professional and always knows the audience to whom he is speaking or telling a joke – or as he puts it, ‘a story,’” Riley said. “Phil’s ability to explain RESPA and other compliance issues to the people in the industry who actually have to live with complying with these rules has been incredibly important. He has set the standard for the law.”