Richard J. Andreano, Jr., is the Practice Leader of Ballard Spahr's Mortgage Banking Group. He has devoted over 30 years of practice to financial services, mortgage banking, and consumer finance law.
Rich advises banks, lenders, brokers, home builders, title companies, insurance companies, real estate professionals, and other settlement providers on regulatory compliance and transactional matters, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issues, and administrative examinations, enforcement actions and investigations, including fair lending matters. Rich is the principal contact for the firm in its role as federal consumer regulatory counsel to the Real Estate Services Providers Council, Inc. (RESPRO).
With more than 20 years as a mortgage industry leader, Paul Gigliotti steps into the role of CEO of the California MBA with a proven record of growing lending platforms and streamlining operations. Over the course of his career, he has held executive positions with multiple mortgage lenders and brought innovation and efficiency to both financial-services and technology organizations.
Paul’s leadership journey includes serving on the California MBA Board of Directors, leading organizations such as AXIS and Pinnacle, and advising mortgage technology firms including Prudent AI. A recognized thought leader, he has championed critical industry conversations at national events such as the Mortgage Innovators Conference and beyond.
Grounded in authenticity and shaped by his role as a husband and father, Paul believes the best leadership is built on trust, accountability, and genuine connection. With this perspective, he is committed to guiding the California MBA into the future and supporting its mission to serve members and the broader mortgage community.
I have over 21 years of experience in the financial services industry working with leading regional banks. My role has been to support their efforts to maintain and grow their businesses, by providing them with innovative and efficient lending technology solutions.
I have a strong background in business process automation, OCR, data management, and digital lending, which I developed and leveraged in my previous roles at Fiserv and Proformance. I have also co-authored a whitepaper and filed a patent for a loan completion system that uses a combination of these technologies. I enjoy complex problem solving and creating value-based partnerships that turn into relationships. My affinity for technology, people, and how both integrate into successful, meaningful solutions drives me to deliver results and make an impact in the industry.
Chris Hilliard is a FinTech/RegTech executive and the Chief Executive Officer and a Founder of Winnow (http://winnow.law).
He is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) and a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP). He has over 20 years of industry experience in consumer, commercial, and residential mortgage lending and general banking. He has extensive experience managing all aspects of regulatory compliance, BSA/AML, Internal Audit, licensing, as well as legal functions including litigation management for both individual and class actions. His experience includes executive, senior management and mid-level management positions at major financial institutions and lenders.
Winnow is a powerful online application built on a comprehensive and dynamic database of state regulatory requirements. It enables your financial or lending institution to generate surveys and searches tailored to your specific business type and licensing, the financial products you offer, and where you offer those products.
Richard Horn is a former Senior Counsel & Special Advisor in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Regulations and a former Senior Attorney at the FDIC. Richard is currently Co-Managing Partner of Garris Horn LLP.
At the CFPB, Richard led the final rulemaking for the integrated disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, also known as “TRID”). He also led the CFPB’s design of the integrated disclosures, as well as the qualitative and quantitative consumer testing of the disclosures. As a key architect of the TRID rulemaking, Richard is one of the foremost experts on the rule.
Based in Buchalter’s Denver office, Mike Kilgarriff is Co-Chair of the firm’s State Attorneys General (State AG) Practice and a national leader in defending companies facing investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation brought by State AG offices. His practice is focused exclusively on helping companies navigate high-stakes State AG enforcement—whether it’s a confidential single-state investigation, a multistate coalition inquiry, or parallel scrutiny from financial services and securities regulators.
Mike has worked directly with the state attorneys general of every U.S. state except Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. His State AG enforcement experience includes some of the largest multistate actions in the country, including a 39-state coalition enforcement action, as well as dozens of individual State AG lawsuits and investigations.
Mike’s clients include financial services companies, fintech platforms, cryptocurrency and digital asset businesses, and other highly regulated industries. He is known for bringing a defense-first, litigation-driven approach to State AG matters. His work includes responding to civil investigative demands (CIDs), subpoenas, and government audits, negotiating multistate resolutions, and defending companies in state and federal courts.
Mike’s practice is singularly focused on defense—he does not represent governments. He is fully committed to helping companies minimize risk, protect their businesses, and resolve State AG scrutiny with strategic, practical solutions.
In addition to State AG enforcement defense, Mike maintains an active commercial litigation practice for companies facing high-risk disputes tied to regulatory exposure, consumer claims, business torts, and complex contracts.
Mike is recognized as one of the few private-practice lawyers nationally whose State AG enforcement experience spans virtually every jurisdiction in the United States.
Pro Bono Commitment
Mike maintains an active pro bono practice focused on civil rights, immigration, and representing vulnerable populations. His work includes federal civil rights litigation, guardianship proceedings for at-risk children, and advocacy on behalf of displaced seniors and immigrant youth.
Maria is a mortgage industry veteran with 25+ years of executive management and legal compliance experience and a proven record of driving new business as well as innovation while ensuring P&L success.
As CEO of Cloudvirga, Maria is leading the company’s strategic growth in building the preeminent digital mortgage automation company in the point-of-sale (POS) space where she is responsible for technology investments, new products, brand awareness, and enhancing the Stewart customer experience with end-to-end mortgage services and solutions.
She has also held executive positions at several TES (tech-enabled services) companies such as Covius where she served as General Counsel and Enterprise Compliance Officer and built and ran the Compliance Solutions division and specialty providers such as Statebridge and Murrayhill (Clayton).
In addition, Maria serves as Chair of California MBA’s Legal Issues Committee and is a member of MBA’s Technology Working Group. She also serves on the board of Women Leaders of Octane, a non-profit connecting people, resources and capital in the tech sector.
Bob Norman focuses his practice on consumer finance and commercial litigation matters. Bob represents financial institutions, businesses, and other clients in cases across the country. Bob has tried jury and non-jury lawsuits in federal, state, and bankruptcy courts.
Although a trial lawyer at heart, Bob’s focus is to creatively resolve matters for his clients promptly and efficiently. Bob is always mindful of a client’s business model and structure while navigating the complexities of litigation. Bob specializes in financial services litigation, including matters involving:
• State and Federal consumer protection statutes;
• Bankruptcy issues;
• Title issues;
• Negligence claims;
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act;
• Fair Credit Reporting Act;
• Truth in Lending Act (TILA);
• Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA); and
• Home Owners Equity Protection Act (HOEPA);
Bob also works with clients to train, counsel, and develop best practices as well as legal compliance. Bob speaks at industry events and for clients on-site regarding a variety of legal and industry issues. Bob received his Bachelor of Science degree in
Finance, along with a Minor in Business Economics from the California State University, Long Beach in 2001. Bob received his law degree Cum Laude in 2004 from Whittier College, School of Law. In law school, Bob was a member of the Whittier Law Review and was
the recipient of the CALI Excellence Award, Alternative Dispute Resolution.
I have always loved thinking and problem-solving within a set of rules, the essence of litigation and regulatory compliance. As a boy, I wanted to be responsible for, of all things, airline operations. Practicing law is similar – I take extremely complex issues, distill them into actionable, concise questions, and suggest and implement effective solutions.
Sandy has been a licensed attorney in California for more than 35 years, and has litigated cases involving commercial law, real estate, and consumer financial services, focusing on mortgage-related issues, and offered regulatory and compliance advice to clients throughout the country.
Having handled more than 100 non-jury trials and numerous substantial jury trials in both state and federal courts, Sandy is an effective advocate no matter the course of litigation. With experience supervising litigation teams in the in-house and law firm context, Sandy evaluates and synthesizes complex issues, analyzes conflicting statutes and regulations to distill them to their essence, and implements practical solutions. In short, he knows what the case is about, how it should resolve, and develops effective trial themes to enhance jury and bench understanding.
Sandy also manages appellate cases, both for cases on which the firm has done underlying trial work and for matters other firms handled during the trial phase. He has worked on appeals in Florida and California at the state and federal levels.
In 1998, Sandy joined Countrywide Home Loans where he organized and established that company’s California In-House Litigation Group. Sandy focused on mortgage-related litigation and has tried numerous cases to verdict. In 2008, after Bank of America acquired Countrywide, he managed outside counsel on a pool of hundreds of litigation cases, and helped develop case resolution strategies.
Greg Young currently serves as the Senior Deputy Commissioner for Corporations and Financial Institutions within the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Greg was appointed to this role by Governor Gavin Newsom and joined DFPI on March 30, 2023.
Prior to this role, Greg was Community Lending Manager for Umpqua Bank where he was charged with building out the strategy and delivery of Umpqua’s Home Lending plan focused on increasing homeownership amongst underserved and under-resourced communities throughout Umpqua’s 5 state footprint in the West. Greg has over 25 year’s experience in a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles at American Express, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and New York Life. In 2008, Greg was a Founding Partner and Executive Coach with ThinkFeelKnow, an executive coaching and communications firm.
In the government sector, Greg spent time in Washington D.C. where he was Chief Legislative Clerk for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Labor and Human Resources Committee. Locally where Greg resides in Martinez, CA, Greg has served on the Martinez Planning Commission, Library Commission, and the Contra Costa Library Commission. In 2004, Greg ran for Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors District 2.
He has been a guest lecturer on a variety of topics at U.C. Berkeley and Cal State East Bay. Greg was a guest lecturer at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, CA where he taught a non-profit financial management course in the School of Business and Management. Greg has served on several boards in his local community including the Diablo Valley College Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of Contra Costa County, Bay Area Development Company, and Juvenile Hall Auxiliary of Contra Costa County to name a few.
Greg holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco, and an Executive MBA from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA.
