EMERGING ISSUES TRACK: Navigating Regulatory Waters – Insights from Former Regulators

Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Chase

Samuel Racoosin is a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA. He is the lead attorney for the residential Loan Servicing performing, customer assistance and default legal teams. He is principally responsible for providing legal advice to the residential mortgage loan servicing business. Before joining JP Morgan Chase, Racoosin was Associate General Counsel at Fannie Mae. In that capacity, he was responsible for providing legal advice to the US Treasury in connection with the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program. Samuel previously served as Associate General Counsel for Fannie Mae’s single family mortgage business, providing advice on new products, eMortgage initiatives, and loss mitigation. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Samuel was Associate General Counsel of North American Mortgage Company, a national mortgage banker. Racoosin has a Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.

Former Acting General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Ben served as Acting General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development from December 2024 through January 2025 and was the Principal Deputy General Counsel at HUD since May 2022. Ben supervised a 400+ lawyer legal department advising the Secretary and senior Department leadership on wide variety of program, litigation, enforcement, legislative, and ethics issues. As Principal Deputy, Ben had specific responsibility for Congressional oversight, coordination of oversight responses with other agencies, interaction with the Office of Inspector General, and was involved in HUD’s major enforcement and litigation matters. Prior to joining HUD, Ben was Managing or Co-Managing Partner of Buckley LLP, a financial services and white collar/complex civil litigation firm, starting in 2009. Ben led Buckley’s growth from approximately 40 attorneys in two offices in 2009 to an AmLaw 200 ranked law firm with approximately 125 attorneys in five domestic and one international office. While leading the firm, Ben maintained active financial services and white-collar practices representing banks and financial services companies in federal and state enforcement investigations, examinations, and litigation, as well as in complex civil and class action litigation. He also conducted corporate internal investigations and represented companies and individuals in criminal and civil enforcement matters, including multi-national Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations. Ben began his legal career in 1990 at Skadden, ultimately becoming a partner during his 17 years there. He had a two and a half year interlude from Skadden at small boutique litigation and enforcement firm, Iraola and Klubes. During his time at Skadden, Ben was involved in a variety of high-profile matters, including work on teams representing the IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. bankruptcy trustee (5th largest bank failure in U.S. history), the Senate Ethics Committee in “Keating Five” hearings, and former Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger in the Iran-Contra prosecution.

Former Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development