Ben is a former banker turned trial lawyer that conducts business and real estate litigation. Hehas done numerous trials and hundreds of court hearings.
Ben has litigated lawsuits involving business partnerships and shareholder disputes, businesspurchase and sale related litigation, title insurance claims, civil theft, foreclosure, lenderlawsuits, real estate transactions gone wrong, final judgment collection cases, employmentcontract litigation, slander, and commercial lease lawsuits.
Ben’s Unique Banking Background
Before becoming an attorney, Ben spent the bulk of his professional career as an investment banker, mortgage banker, and professional loan buyer, purchasing mortgage loans from other
banks. Ben’s prior banking career also included managing hundreds of foreclosure cases onbehalf of Ocwen Financial. Ben’s unique banking background makes him an undeniable
authority, well-prepared to render advice and to litigate mortgage loan issues.
During his former career as a banker, Ben conducted loan purchase due diligence on tens of billions of dollars of loan purchase transactions. He has worked for Ocwen, Lehman Brothers,Goldman Sachs, Countrywide, Wells Fargo and many other institutional lenders. More specifically, Ben conducted loan purchase due diligence, negotiated loan purchase and sale contracts, and developed loan purchase pricing models and bidding strategies.
In Ben’s loan acquisitions consulting practice, he was often hired by the buyer bank to review loan files to determine if the seller bank actually followed their own lending standards. Finally, Ben has been through Countrywide’s forensic loan fraud training.
Ben holds a Juris Doctor degree, with an Emphasis on Mergers & Acquisitions, CorporateBankruptcy, and Corporate Restructuring from Stetson University College of Law, as well as aMaster’s of Business Administration (MBA). He also holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degreein Business Management from Palm Beach Atlantic College, where he graduated Cum Laude.
fisherman, a disciplined weight trainer, a ballroom dancer, chess aficionado, and a former semi-professional beach volleyball player.
Castle Law Group, P.A.Managing Shareholder | May 2008 – Current
Foreclosure Defense Attorney; typically with the litigation goal of avoiding a deficiency judgment
Hillard, Cuykendall P.A.Managing Shareholder | August 2014 – Current
Business litigation including: real estate, title, banking, foreclosure, corporate law,
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), and shareholder derivative suits.
Hillard Law Group, P.A. f/k/a Hillard& Rogers, P.A.Managing Shareholder | August 2007 – Current Business litigation including: real estate, title, banking, foreclosure, corporate law,
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), and shareholder derivative suits.
Commercial and Residential loan purchase due diligence, acquisitions advisory, and
Commercial loan and real estate acquisitions, commercial loan underwriting, site
Conducted due diligence and consulting work for Goldman, Lehman, Morgan,
Legal research and drafting memoranda in both substantive and procedural bankruptcy
Review and analysis of billions of dollars of mortgage loans for purchase from other
banks, the FDIC, the RTC and the SBA. Conducted purchase & sale agreement negotiations for commercial loan and commercial asset acquisitions
Management of more than 60 “outside counsel” attorneys over a portfolio of up to 700
Featured in Attorney At Law Magazine – Great Tampa Bay Edition, Vol 2 No 1
Causes Uncertainty for Title Companies, Bankers and Lawyers, February 2008