Venable partner Michael Bresnick was quoted in a September 28, 2015 American Banker article on the Consumer Financial protection Bureau’s (CFPB) use of an outside consultant to advise the agency on its disparate impact methodology. While the consultant's firm has received more than a million dollars in fees from the CFPB since 2012, the same consultant has also been hired by some of the country’s largest banks to defend against unintentional discrimination.
"It's not unusual for the Justice Department to hire outside experts on cases, but it is unusual for that expert to play both sides of the fence," said Bresnick. "And working for a government agency would not preclude that expert from representing the company in an unrelated matter, but it would get troublesome when that expert starts punching holes in the agency's method."