Jessica D. Ehrlich

Attorney

As an attorney in Florida for almost 20 years, Ms. Ehrlich has represented clients in matters including business litigation matters and has served as an advisor to various corporate entitles on various legislative and regulatory issues. Jessica has also represented national and regional banks in a broad range of commercial and consumer lending transactions. At Stark, she concentrates her legal practice on commercial finance, real estate, equipment finance, commercial litigation and creditor’s rights. She represents lenders in a variety of finance transactions, including all types of secured and unsecured loans, SBA transactions, lines of credit, acquisition financing and working capital loans. She also focuses her legal practice on asset based lending, specialty lending, equipment finance, commercial lending, custom lending, real estate secured transactions, commercial card, SBA lending, SBA creditor’s rights, creditor’s rights, contested matters in bankruptcy, regulatory related matters, work outs and complex restructuring matters, including settlements, foreclosures and note sales. Jessica has over 20 years of experience handling a full range of commercial real estate transactions and commercial lending. She regularly represents financial institutions in permanent mortgage loan, construction loan and conduit loan transactions. Her financing experience also includes foreclosures, workouts and restructuring of existing loans.

Jessica also brings over a decade of work experience at Fortune 500 companies and in Federal and State government to her law practice and in advising clients. In New York, she worked in Investment Research at Goldman Sachs and as an attorney at Bloomberg LP where her work was regularly published. In Washington, DC, Jessica served two members of Congress as Legislative Counsel on both the House Financial Services Committee and on the House Ways and Means Committee. She worked directly on the Dodd-Frank bill as well as on housing issues; CFIUS, and Fintech issues; programs for the unbanked and underbanked; the foreclosure crises; insurance regulation; Securities oversight and regulation; and consumer banking and credit unions. Most recently, Jessica was appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser as the Chief of Staff for the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking and routinely counsels our banking clients on both federal and state regulatory and governmental matters.

Jessica’s work has been recognized by Glamour Magazine naming her a “Woman of the Year” for Women in Politics in 2012 and by the Florida Association of Women Lawyers’ naming her a Leader in the Law in 2013. In addition, Jessica has appeared regularly as a legal and financial analyst in national and international media on FOX News, FOX Business, MSNBC, Sky News, CNBC Europe, Florida This Week and many others since 2014.

Ms. Ehrlich has served as an appointee on the City of St. Petersburg Development Review Commission, as a division Chair of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, as an active member of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers Pinellas Chapter, and a member of Inns of Court. She is a co-chair of the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association for her class as well as for Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, FL.

Ms. Ehrlich has a BA from Vanderbilt University and a JD from Southern Methodist University where she was a Dean’s Merit Scholar. While in law school, Jessica was a national moot court competition winner, on Dean’s List, a Master Level of the Board of Advocates, led the Foreclosure Clinic, held a fellowship in international human rights law, and was a judicial intern for Chief Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich of the U.S. District Court, Middle Florida.

Ms. Ehrlich is admitted to practice in all state courts and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida.

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