George R. Schneider

George Schneider is an attorney in Goodwin’s Financial Industry, Risk Management & Insurance and ERISA Litigation practices. George concentrates his practice on advising financial institutions, private equity firms, and other clients on insurance and risk management matters, including professional liability insurance and transactional liability insurance (including representation and warranty (R&W) insurance). In his ERISA Litigation practice, George represents large financial services companies in complex class actions alleging violations of ERISA, the Investment Company Act of 1940, and federal consumer financial services laws.

George has also defended leading financial services institutions against many individual and class consumer actions against claims arising under federal and state laws regulating lending as well as consumer protection statutes.

Among his recent matters, George has represented private equity funds and large corporate clients and financial institutions in the following matters:

• Advised numerous strategic buyers and private equity firms in placing transactional liability insurance to facilitate deals across many industries, ranging from health care, consumer and business products, financial services, insurance, and technology
• Negotiated and reviewed the terms and conditions in executive and professional liability policies, including director’s and officer’s insurance, for numerous clients
• Representing several financial services companies in putative nationwide ERISA class actions alleging that investment options in employee retirement plans had excessive fees and/or poor performance. These include several actions challenging mutual fund companies’ use of their own products as investment options in their own retirement plans
• More than fifty lawsuits filed by individual borrowers challenging a wide variety of mortgage lending practices, from origination, to servicing, to loan modification, to foreclosure in several different states. George resolved or succeeded in dismissing virtually all of the lawsuits. As part of his representation, George successfully briefed and argued an appeal at the First Circuit Court of Appeals, after winning summary judgment at the district court level
• Dozens of similar lawsuits filed in the District of Rhode Island by individual borrowers challenging the role of MERS in the foreclosure process, which were ordered into a mediation program before a special master. George worked as part of a team to successfully resolve the lawsuits through the special master process or cause the lawsuits to be dismissed at the pleadings stage
• Multiple lawsuits filed by counties and qui tam actions on behalf of counties challenging the use of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (“MERS”) loan registry system
• Lawsuits filed by municipalities alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act resulting from allegedly discriminatory lending practices.
• Several multi-year litigations arising out of the issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities.
• A putative class action alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Prior to joining Goodwin, George worked as a Court Attorney for the New York City Housing Court.

• Client Alert: “Recent Legal Developments in the U.S. Affecting Insurance Coverage for Covid-19 Related Losses,” April 14, 2020
• Client Alert: “Federal Government Advocates Industry-Friendly Position in ESOP Stock Drop Supreme Court Case,” August 26, 2019
• Co-author, “Fifth Circuit Overturns Fiduciary Rule,” Bender’s Labor & Employment Bulletin, May 2018
• George is also an editor of the ERISA Litigation Update and has authored dozens of blog posts on Goodwin's consumer financial services blog, Consumer Finance Insights