Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP today announced that Miami partner-in-charge Barbara Fernandez and Ft. Lauderdale partner-in-charge Andrew Gordon have been honored in the 2025 South Florida Business Journal’s Power Leaders in Law & Accounting, which celebrates the region’s most influential executives across key industries.

Hinshaw Miami partner-in-charge Barbara Fernandez has been honored as one of ten Women of Distinction in the 2025 Inaugural Miami-Dade Florida Association of Women Lawyers (FAWL) Impact Awards.

The law firm of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP today announced that Miami partner-in-charge Barbara Fernandez has been selected as one of Florida Legal Elite's Most Notable Women Leaders in Law by Florida Trend Magazine for the second consecutive year.

Barbara Fernandez, Hinshaw's Miami office partner-in-charge, was recently featured in articles by the Daily Business Review and The American Lawyer that discussed trends in area law firm office real estate. Last year, Hinshaw relocated to The Plaza Coral Gables, and several other firms have since also relocated to Coral Gables.

Barbara Fernandez, the partner-in-charge of Hinshaw's Coral Gables office, was recently interviewed by Law360, in which she discussed the firm's new, modern office space at The Plaza.

Miami Partner-in-Charge Barbara Fernandez was among a series of law firm leaders quoted in a Law360 Pulse story regarding South Florida growth prospects in 2024.

Hinshaw is a proud sponsor of the Mortgage Bankers Association's Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference 2022!

Join Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference for an opportunity to network with colleagues at these fun-filled events:

Hinshaw partners Barbara Fernandez and Concepcion Montoya will present Lorman Education Services webinar titled "Defending FDCPA Claims Based on Collection Letters," on October 26, 2017 at 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT. Their presentation will offer an overview of typical claims brought against debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA); a discussion of recent cases involving collection letters; and tips to avoid common FDCPA violations. The webinar is designed for attorneys, credit and collection managers, presidents, vice presidents, business owners and managers, lending professionals, bankers and accountants.

Today, Hunstein took another unique—but favorable—turn for the debt collection industry. The Eleventh Circuit Court of appeals issued an order vacating its last opinion in Hunstein vs. Preferred Collection & Management Services, Inc, and ordered the case to be reheard en banc.

In a special edition of our Consumer Law Hinsights newsletter, we cover the U.S. Supreme Court decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez that was announced last Friday. The Court held "no concrete harm, no standing" in a significant check on federal consumer class actions. Read our analysis.

We now have a split among federal circuits regarding the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which limits automated calls and text messages. What constitutes an ATDS has been debated both by the FCC and courts for quite some time. In 2008 and 2015, the FCC found that all predictive dialers were automated telephone dialing systems under the TCPA. In Marks v. Crunch San Diego in 2018, the Ninth Circuit, held that the TCPA applies to devices with the capacity to automatically dial telephone numbers from a stored list or devices that dial telephone numbers produced from a random or sequential number generator. Now, in Glasser v. Hilton Grand Vacations and Gadelhak v. AT&T Services, Inc., the Eleventh and Seventh Circuits have taken the opposite approach and found that an ATDS only includes equipment that dials randomly or sequentially.

Trump's Preferred Method of Scaling Back Consumer Financial Regulation is Appointment of New CFPB Director

All eyes are on the future of the CFPB as it fights for its existence in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals through the matter, PHH Corp. et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. On February 16, the D.C. Circuit agreed to an en banc review of its October decision that found the CFPB’s single-director structure violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. The October opinion also importantly:

The District of New Jersey, in Benali v. AFNI, granted summary judgment to creditor on Spokeo grounds, denied consumer’s motion for summary judgment and denied consumer’s class certification as moot in a claim involving a convenience fee in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Focusing on consumer’s admission that he never owed the underlying debt and lacked contractual privity with the creditor, the court held that the consumer did not suffer a concrete harm sufficient to confer Article III standing.  Specifically, the court noted that mere receipt of a collection letter in these circumstances “is just another way of saying that a bare procedural violation is itself a concrete harm – a principle explicitly rejected by the Supreme Court.” Benali, No. 15-3605, *6. As courts continue to grapple with the meaning of Spokeo in cases alleging statutory violations, Benali adds another measure of clarity for the creditor defense bar.

Download or read the complete newsletter here: Consumer Financial Services Newsletter

Download or read the complete newsletter here: Consumer Financial Services Newsletter

Download or read the complete newsletter here: Consumer Financial Services Newsletter