Amicus Professional Legal Services, Inc. recently announced the appointment of Tony Hayden as director of the company's Florida operations. Amicus, headquartered in Mokena, Illinois, is a national, full-service legal support provider specializing in service of process, skip tracing, default services, and loss mitigation.

According to Amicus, when Hayden traded his litigation hat for the company's Florida operations manager position, he never anticipated his residential and commercial litigation experience would springboard him from the active practice of law into the legal support field.

Hayden received a Juris Doctrine Degree from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in 2001. In the same year he was admitted to the Florida Bar and to the United States Federal District Court of Florida for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts, as well as, the United States Federal Court, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Formerly, Hayden practiced law for the firm of Echevarria & Associates, PA (now known as Florida Default Law Group), representing mortgage lenders in hundreds of creditors' rights actions and bankruptcies. Hayden litigated many contested mortgage foreclosures involving RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act), TILA (Truth-in-Lending Act), FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act), FCCPA (Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act), and FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), in addition to quiet title actions, replevins, and various real property disputes.

After three years of practicing law with Echevarria & Associates, Hayden accepted an associate attorney position with the Tampa-based law firm of Saxon, Gilmore, Carraway, Gibbons, Lash & Wilcox, PA. For four years Hayden represented various businesses, mortgage lenders, and other financial institutions in creditors' rights litigation, commercial litigation, and bankruptcy adversary proceedings. Hayden continued to litigate commercial matters involving RESPA, TILA, FDCPA, FCCPA, FCRA, as well as various other federal and state statutes.

Now with the Amicus team, Hayden describes his position as “multi-faceted and dynamic.” He says he welcomes the challenge of streamlining the current Florida operations and managing Amicus’ growth responsibly, while maintaining and cultivating client partnerships.

Carrie Bay | 02.19.09 www.dsnews.com