Auto Finance Attorney Joins Ballard Spahr

Ballard Spahr is pleased to announce that Peter N. Cubita has joined its Consumer Financial Services Group in the New York office. Mr. Cubita is one of the leading consumer financial services attorneys in the country, with extensive experience in auto finance and leasing. 

Mr. Cubita is a Co-Chair of the Legal Committee of the Association of Consumer Vehicle Lessors (ACVL), a member of the Governing Committee of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, and a member of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, an organization founded to honor lawyers who have made substantial contributions to the development of consumer financial services law.

Mr. Cubita has practiced consumer financial services law for more than 30 years, initially as an associate and ultimately as a partner at a major law firm in New York and, beginning in 2008, as an in-house attorney at Ally Financial Inc. (formerly known as GMAC). His consumer financial services experience is wide-ranging, encompassing regulatory compliance, transactional, class action litigation, and government enforcement matters, with a focus in the motor vehicle retail finance and leasing areas. Mr. Cubita's move to Ballard Spahr is timely, since the CFPB is poised to begin supervisory examinations of nonbank auto finance companies in the near future.

Highlights of Mr. Cubita's career include:

Developing the first generation of retail installment sale contracts and vehicle lease agreements for the retail sales finance and retail leasing programs of the captive auto finance company of a major foreign automaker.

Successfully briefing and arguing the appeal in Perrone v. GMAC, which resulted in the first appellate decision to analyze whether detrimental reliance is required to recover actual damages for disclosure violations of the Truth in Lending Act.

Representing GMAC in connection with its class certification appeal in Coleman v. GMAC, which resulted in a seminal holding that compensatory damages under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) are not recoverable by a Rule 23(b)(2) class, and in connection with the subsequent district court proceedings.

Receiving a Burton Award for Legal Achievement for his groundbreaking Business Lawyer article arguing that disparate impact claims are not cognizable under the ECOA. The analogous issue of whether disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act, which was before the U.S. Supreme Court twice before settlements deprived the Court of jurisdiction, will likely be brought before the Supreme Court again.

As a member of Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, Mr. Cubita joins a team of more than 100 attorneys nationwide who represent banks and nonbanks facing CFPB oversight and grappling with an ever-expanding range of legal requirements. 

Attorneys in the Group represent clients in CFPB and other federal and state enforcement proceedings; conduct compliance, diligence, and fair lending assessments; provide the legal backbone for new financial services products and programs, including consumer-facing documents and program agreements; analyze and submit formal comments on proposed rules; and handle a broad array of joint venture agreements and transactions. 

ABOUT BALLARD SPAHR

Ballard Spahr, a national law firm with more than 500 lawyers in 14 offices in the United States, provides a range of services in litigation, business and finance, real estate, intellectual property, and public finance. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, life sciences and technology companies, health systems, investors and developers, government agencies and sponsored enterprises, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations. The firm combines a national scope of practice with strong regional market knowledge. For more information, please visit www.ballardspahr.com.