About us
Firm Background
In 1977, Mickel Law Firm, P.A., an Arkansas professional association, was established to assist and provide professional full service representation for mortgage lenders, mortgage loan servicers and banks in foreclosures, loan modifications, loan workouts, deeds in lieu, evictions, REO closings, litigation, document reformation, title issue resolutions and all bankruptcy matters.
Delbert Mickel, the founder of Mickel Law Firm, P.A., established his practice as one of the first mortgage default law firms in the State of Arkansas, and was considered by his peers to be a pioneer in the field. Mr. Mickel, through his firm, provided default specific legal services from 1977, until his passing in August of 2012. Throughout his thirty-eight years of legal practice, Mr. Mickel fostered an open door policy for the firm, and insisted that there be a team atmosphere among all employees of the firm. As a result, the firm has never experienced issues with territory claiming or knowledge barriers. Simply put, whether attorney or office staff, Mr. Mickel made it clear that no singular group of people in the office was to be treated differently than any other. Since Mr. Mickel’s passing, the firm has been managed by three partners, James H. Swindle, Jr., Stephen P. Lowman, and Aaron Caldwell. All three partners worked with Delbert Mickel directly and shared his vision regarding how a legal practice should be administered and maintained. The culture and values he instilled in the firm over his many years of practice and stewardship carry on today in the way the current partners operate the firm. We are grateful for the values instilled by Mr. Mickel, and for the kindness and generosity he showed not only to the current partners, but to all employees of the firm as well.
Our firm is a founding member of Fidelity’s Attorney Roundtable Advisory Board. Since 1992, “Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory” rated our firm “AV”, the highest rating available for integrity and performance, plus we have been recognized every year since 2001 in Martindale-Hubbell’s “Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers” in America.
Firm Culture
Our firm philosophy and management structure fosters a culture that encourages the continuous pursuit of excellence while maintaining the highest ethical standards. We successfully maintain this culture because there are no isolated tiers of employees and everyone in our office works together as a team. Further, the firm maintains an open door policy for everyone. We want each member and employee of the firm to feel free to interact and ask questions.
Our Attorneys employ an extensive ‘hands-on’ approach to the management of each file by personally organizing their calendars, insuring that the proper documents are timely prepared, and confirming daily that files are processed properly. Our Attorneys personally review every document before it is filed with the court or submitted directly to the borrowers. Our Attorneys and support team members daily utilize reports generated by shared client systems, as well as information generated by our own case management system, CaseAware, to manage each file.
Our Attorneys’ utilization of these systems enables them to readily interact with support team members, to discuss individual files daily, as well as frequently exchange ideas about how to enhance our internal processes and procedures. Our firm culture recognizes the value of our support team members’ experience in processing each file. Input from support team members regarding the effectiveness of our processes and procedures is regularly encouraged because of their intimate knowledge of (i) our clients’ systems; (ii) our internal systems; and (iii) specific court requirements in each jurisdiction.
Our firm culture demands a vigilant team effort in the management of each file. Our regular and systematic review of our internal and external procedures demonstrates our commitment to providing exceptional client services. Our attention to detail for proper document preparation and execution demonstrates our respect for the judicial process. Representing mortgage creditors has become substantially more complex because of recent changes in the law; the advent of government sponsored loss mitigation programs, and increased judicial scrutiny. Our firm will be a valuable partner with our clients because we have historically maintained the highest standards which are critical to effectively representing mortgage creditors in today’s challenging environment.
Firm Environment
We encourage all employees to be courteous, respectful and tolerant to each other, and to all persons that we interact with daily. Our culture creates a pleasant work-place environment, which enhances our ability to retain qualified and competent employees.
Our firm strives to foster an environment of employee retention because we have found that continuity in staff promotes efficiencies in processing. As a result, our culture creates a mutual desire between our firm and our employees for each individual employee to remain at our firm for their entire professional career. Our employees’ significant average years of experience at our firm and the advancement of our Office Manager from entry-level employee demonstrate this aspect of our culture.
We assign Attorneys and support team members to specific phases of the “cradle-to-grave” process. This internal arrangement generates processing efficiencies and improves the overall quality of legal services through specialization. Familiarity of the whole process and specific processes due to cross-training enables our Attorneys and support team members to quickly recognize and immediately address with the client any systemic issues such as delays in providing our firm with necessary documentation or deficiencies in the client’s documents or records.
Our Attorneys employ an extensive ‘hands-on’ approach to the management of each file. While striving to quickly process the legal work, we place more emphasis on the quality of the work generated. In order to maintain the highest ethical standards, we have “Attorneys doing Attorneys’ work”. The Attorneys employ an extensive “hands-on” approach to proper document preparation by personally reviewing every document filed with the court and every document submitted directly to the borrowers. Our commitment to generating high quality work product demonstrates that we will not compromise the integrity of the legal process by hastily pursuing rapid results.