One difficulty in representing clients who are “under water” on their mortgages is how the lawyer should get paid for his or her time negotiating a better deal for the client.
The client is heavily in debt, but if the lawyer shines, the client could save tens of thousands of dollars. In a listserve post this week, Professor Andrew Perlman asked: What if the lawyer was paid by taking a percentage of the money that the client saved through renegotiating the mortgage?