Cornelius R. O'Brien

Partner

804.697.1405

More ways to contact Cornelius R. O’Brien

Lenders and loan servicers trust Neil to guide them through their most complex multifamily financing deals. With the perspective and insight gained while at Fannie Mae, Neil finds solutions to a wide range of challenges involving its loan programs.

Overview

Neil helps lenders and loan servicers structure, negotiate, and execute multifamily finance and commercial loan transactions that are intended to be sold in the secondary market in connection with Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) product line. While serving as associate general counsel at Fannie Mae, Neil represented the company in multifamily finance deals and worked closely with Fannie Mae’s DUS lenders. His experience includes the full range of legal aspects related to Fannie Mae’s multifamily operations, including underwriting, loan origination, structured debt, maturity management, loan documentation, and asset management.

Clients appreciate Neil’s insider perspective and his familiarity with Fannie Mae’s business. They depend on him to manage their transactions from start to finish and to proactively address the legal, procedural and other developments impacting DUS lenders.

Neil is a member of a national team of attorneys and real estate professionals who provide end-to-end guidance and management for thousands of transactions originated by the firm’s mortgage lending clients each year. Their industry-leading efficiencies and best practices have helped them become widely recognized as the top practice for multifamily finance in the United States.

* Licensed to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Not admitted in Virginia.

Overview

Neil helps lenders and loan servicers structure, negotiate, and execute multifamily finance and commercial loan transactions that are intended to be sold in the secondary market in connection with Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) product line. While serving as associate general counsel at Fannie Mae, Neil represented the company in multifamily finance deals and worked closely with Fannie Mae’s DUS lenders. His experience includes the full range of legal aspects related to Fannie Mae’s multifamily operations, including underwriting, loan origination, structured debt, maturity management, loan documentation, and asset management.

Clients appreciate Neil’s insider perspective and his familiarity with Fannie Mae’s business. They depend on him to manage their transactions from start to finish and to proactively address the legal, procedural and other developments impacting DUS lenders.

Neil is a member of a national team of attorneys and real estate professionals who provide end-to-end guidance and management for thousands of transactions originated by the firm’s mortgage lending clients each year. Their industry-leading efficiencies and best practices have helped them become widely recognized as the top practice for multifamily finance in the United States.

* Licensed to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Not admitted in Virginia.

Top areas of focus

  • Associate general counsel, Fannie Mae, 1999-2013
  • Vice president and associate general counsel, American Business Financial Services Inc., 1996-1999
  • Audit manager, KPMG, 1983-1987

Education

  • Widener University Delaware Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1990
  • Rider University, M.B.A., 1981
  • Rider University, B.S.C., 1978

Bar Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey

Court Admissions

  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
  • Legal editor, Planned Unit Developments: Determining Project Acceptance, Fannie Mae, 2005.
  • Author, “Protecting Mortgage Borrowers From Coerced Representation by a Lender’s Attorney: New Jersey’s Attempt May Fall Short Once Again,” 6 Loyola Consumer Law Reporter 77 (Spring 1994) (cited by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Turner v. First Union National Bank, 162 N.J. 75 (Dec. 9, 1999)).
  • Author, “Chapter 13 Debtors Continue to Strip Mortgagees,” Mortgage Times, May 1994.
  • Author, “Lender Liable for Borrower’s Withholding Taxes,” Corporation, Banking and Business Law Newsletter, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Winter 1992.
  • Co-author, Relief From the Automatic Stay: Creditors’ Rights in Bankruptcy, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, 1989.
  • Author, “Let the Buyer Beware ‘As Is’ May Mean ‘Ac-id,’” Tri-State Real Estate Journal, Aug. 18, 1989.