E-Signatures and Electronic Documentation in Real Estate Finance: ESIGN and UETA, Interplay With UCC
Enforceability, Authentication, and Admissibility; MERS and Transferability
Recording of a 90-minute premium CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will examine the legality of electronic signatures and digital documents generally, as well as recent developments in using eNotes and other electronic mortgage loan documentation. The panel will discuss the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act, Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), the MERS registry, and legal and practical issues, including the authentication of electronic signatures, transferability, and the admissibility of eNotes in litigation.
Outline
- Introduction to ESIGN and UETA
- Electronic signatures: what are they?
- Remote notarization
- Pre-electronic signature law: ensuring the validity
- MERS: mortgage industry infrastructure established to support eNotes
- Creating and transferring ownership of eNotes
- Post-closing: the role of the document custodian for electronic files
- State law concerns: UCC and recordable instruments
- Admissibility of electronic signatures and documents into evidence
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What are the legal issues surrounding electronic signatures?
- How do ESIGN, UETA, and the UCC interact, and how does this interaction impact various agreements of the loan package?
- What is the role of MERS and the custodian, and can electronic mortgages be recorded?
- What enforceability, authentication, and admissibility challenges do counsel face in litigation involving electronic loan documents?
Faculty
Jane E. Bond
Managing Partner of Florida Litigation
McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce
Ms. Bond has 30 years of litigation experience, with 24 years specifically devoted to business and real estate... | Read More
Ms. Bond has 30 years of litigation experience, with 24 years specifically devoted to business and real estate litigation involving the mortgage lending and servicing industries. She represents clients in appellate proceedings before the Florida District Courts of Appeal and the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Litigation Group handles both commercial and residential litigation for clients throughout the state. Ms. Bond extends her expertise to teaching at training seminars, conferences, and continuing legal education courses on real property law and related topics.
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Sharon McGann-Horstkamp
General Counsel
MERSCORP Holdings
Ms. Horstkamp has been a member of the MERS team since January 1997, where she developed the legal needs of the company... | Read More
Ms. Horstkamp has been a member of the MERS team since January 1997, where she developed the legal needs of the company from the ground up as the corporation grew from a start-up to being acquired by ICE in October 2018. Ms. Horstkamp played a key role in gaining mortgage industry approval for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), which has resulted in over 130 million mortgage loans registered on the MERS® System. She is also the lead counsel on advising MERSCORP on eNotes and the MERS® eRegistry, the mortgage industry-standard system of record for identifying the Controller and Location of the Authoritative Copy of an eNote that has over 1.2 million eNotes registered to date.
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David Whitaker
Of Counsel
DLA Piper
Mr. Whitaker advises traditional and emerging financial services companies, and commercial enterprises, in... | Read More
Mr. Whitaker advises traditional and emerging financial services companies, and commercial enterprises, in transactional, legal and regulatory matters, particularly those related to electronic commerce and digital financial services. He has extensive experience with the practical application of laws governing electronic banking, letters of credit, payment systems, records management and commercial and consumer financing. Mr. Whitaker provides valuable insights to his clients based on decades of in-house experience and deep practical knowledge of the structures, implementation platforms and processes used to contract for and deliver financial and other services online and via mobile devices. David also has extensive experience with various laws and regulations related to residential mortgage lending, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as the laws related to privacy and data security. Mr. Whitaker is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association's Business Law Section, and the Business Law Section's Committee on the Law of Commerce in Cyberspace. He has co-chaired the Cyberspace Committee's Task Force on Federated Identity Management. Mr. Whitaker was the Co-Reporter for the Standards and Procedures for electronic Records and Signatures (SPeRS). He served as Reporter for the Mortgage Bankers Association white paper "Security Interests in Transferable Records." He was an active participant in the drafting of Revised Articles 5 and 9 of the UCC. He also participated in the drafting of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, where he chaired the Task Force on Scope and served as reporter for the Task Force. David also advised industry participants on the creation and drafting of the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.
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