James W. McGarry

Jim McGarry is a partner in Goodwin’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution group. He previously served as co-chair of the firm’s Financial Industry practice and the firm’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution group. His national practice focuses on defending financial institutions of all shapes and sizes, primarily in state and nationwide class actions and multi-district class actions around the country and in matters with significant client regulatory and/or reputational risk. In the recent past, Jim has defended clients against nearly 100 class actions and his unprecedented streak of defeating fully contested class actions extends beyond 15 years.

The cases Jim defends typically cover the full spectrum of consumer claims, but arise under any number of federal statutes, including the Electronic Fund Transfers Act (EFTA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act (RESPA), fair lending and anti-discrimination statutes such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA), as well as state and federal unfair and deceptive trade practices acts, and other consumer lending statutes and regulations and the common law. His recent work includes:

• Obtaining a complete dismissal of one of the first class actions brought under the RESPA loss mitigation regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
• Obtaining dismissals or defeating class certification in dozens of state and nationwide class actions challenging various loan servicing, loss mitigation and loan modification practices, including the largest multi-district litigation challenging servicer practices under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)
• Successfully defending national banks and mortgage lending companies in fair lending and predatory lending-based class actions, in private and state Attorney General lawsuits challenging "unfair" lending practices and in fair lending lawsuits brought by various municipalities across the country
• Successfully representing fintech companies, banks, mortgage lenders and indirect auto finance companies in numerous state Attorney General investigations

In addition to his litigation practice, Jim also provides advice and litigation-avoidance counseling to a variety of banks, credit card issuers, indirect auto lenders and other consumer and commercial lenders, and has been involved in various client internal and government investigations.

Jim is a member of the American, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations, and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He is a member of the Ambassadors and Advisors Board, and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Project Citizenship, a Boston-based non-profit whose mission is to break down barriers for legal permanent residents to become United States citizens. He is also a former board member of the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

Prior to joining Goodwin in 1996, Jim was an associate at another national law firm, where he focused on general commercial litigation. He was senior litigation counsel to U.S. Filter Corporation from July 2000 until he re-joined the firm in February 2002.

Jim has been recognized in The Legal 500 US for his work on financial services litigation.

Jim has written and spoken on a variety of topics pertaining to financial services and class action litigation, including the expansion of unfair, deceptive and abusive acts enforcement by the CFPB and states’ Attorneys’ General, the use of statistical evidence in class actions following the Supreme Court’s decisions in Tyson Foods, industry impact of the D.C. Circuit’s opinion in PHH v. CFPB, the enforceability of class action waivers in arbitration provisions, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD), and liability for home loan modifications and issues of federal preemption. He also co-authored the lender liability chapter in the Massachusetts Business Torts treatise published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.