The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be four years old on July 21, 2015.

Already, there are more than 100 private practice attorneys in the Washington, D.C. area whose primary, if not exclusive practice, is representing clients before the CFPB.

One of those attorneys is Jenny Lee of DLA Piper in Washington, D.C.

Lee is a former CFPB enforcement attorney.

She joined DLA Piper in November 2014.

And now she’s organizing a forum for companies to interact with the CFPB.

The forum would allow clients to appear before the CFPB and “explain the technical aspects of their bank products and services outside the context of an ongoing CFPB exam or investigation.”

“The banks are worried about the disconnect of understanding extremely technical aspects of their models and systems,” Lee told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week.

Lee says she knows that regulators are open-minded about improving their learning and not wasting government resources on fruitless probes.

“Fundamental to their work is an accurate understanding of financial services firms’ systems,” Lee said. “Many companies seek to benefit from a forum where they can voice concerns to the CFPB as an information sharing endeavor. They’re not trying to argue – they’re trying to share better data in a neutral forum so the process can work better for both sides moving forward.”

The Chamber of Commerce has attacked the legitimacy of the CFPB.

How would this forum be different?

“This isn’t really a challenge to the CFPB,” Lee said. “It’s more of a forum for mutual learning. It’s important for businesses to understand how the CFPB approaches its decision making. The goal of this particular initiative is to enable the CFPB to have better facts and data that animate their law enforcement decision making.”

“Businesses need a forum to convey better information to the CFPB in a non threatening environment. Rather than having that discussion in the context of a supervision exam or an investigation, those critical pieces of information would be conveyed in a separate forum — a forum that doesn’t trigger any consequences by virtue of that exchange of information.”

Has Lee approached the CFPB about creating this forum?

“Lines of communication are open about this,” Lee says.

Other than the Chamber of Commerce and this forum that you are organizing, are there other groups that are raising these concerns?

“There are possible opportunities for companies individually or as a group to speak to the Office of Research Markets and Regulations (RMR),” Lee says. “There is an office in that group that is particularly well positioned to hold those meetings. They are the in house think tank to advise enforcement and supervision and other divisions. But, I’m not aware of other efforts similar to this one.”

“Many of the attacks on the CFPB have been focused on the CFPB as an entity as a whole or specific laws that have been construed in one way or another.”

“One thing that is missing is a better dialogue at a very technical level.”

“Another is a better understanding of how the agency applies its policy on responsible conduct. What kind of leniency can companies genuinely credibly expect to receive for self-reporting?” she asks.

“In the Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Genuine Title case, there was an unnamed company described in those pleadings. What did it take for that company not to be named in that action? From the Office of Enforcement’s perspective, given the resource limitations that exist, they have every incentive to be credible when they hold out that policy for self-reporting.”

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has a leniency program where the first company in the door to report on a cartel gets effective immunity. Is that the policy at CFPB?

“If there is a demonstration that the institution has come forward without being required to do so and has demonstrated that an issue was identified, corrective action was taken, remedial measures were implemented immediately, and there is no more to see here, then under the policy as I interpret it, there would be no additional restitution or penalty or public naming,” she says.

How often has that happened?

“Given the fact that the agency is so new, I don’t think it has happened that often. The reason for that is that it is very difficult for institutions to predict that that is a credible carrot that awaits them. It’s going to be an evolution.”

“In the next 15 years, the culture will change so that that will happen more often. Right now, there hasn’t been a demonstrated assurance that this is how it will operate.”

But the CFPB does have a written leniency program. Are you saying that the CFPB is not clear enough?

“It’s a bulletin that describes the CFPB’s policies,” Lee says. “But it doesn’t reveal any of the particulars about what kind of preferred treatment will result. This bulletin is a signal to the industry that this is where the CFPB is headed. But there is no detailed step by step matrix that people can look at to determine what they will get for certain actions.”

Other than the Wells Fargo case, have you seen cases where unnamed companies are referred to in public documents?

“No,” she says.

Your practice is almost exclusively focused on CFPB. How many lawyers in Washington, D.C. have such a practice?

“There is not a formal CFPB bar association to date that I’m aware of,” Lee says. “But there is a growing cadre of attorneys who previously worked for the CFPB but are now in private practice.”

How many other lawyers like yourself work exclusively in this area?

“In Washington, D.C., maybe more than 120,” she says.

CFPB doesn’t have criminal enforcement authority, but the CFPB can refer cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Have there been any such cases?

“Yes,” she says. “There was a case about a year ago out of the Southern District of New York that involved a debt services settlement business. There was a sentencing in that case.”

That might be the only one that has been resolved with a guilty verdict?

“That might be the only one,” she says.

[For the complete Q/A Transcript of the Interview with Jenny Lee, see page 29 Corporate Crime Reporter 22(14), June 1, 2014, print edition only.]