Office Security

What rules and restrictions do you have in place for your office security?

Dear Member,

This week's message was inspired by a recent dialogue on the Florida Real Estate Attorneys' E-mail Forum. This discussion was initiated by a Forum member relaying the story of the CFPB showing up in a closing agent's office during a closing and walking right through to the back offices. The author went on to say that the CFPB "wrote up" the closing agent for not having controlled, restricted access from the lobby to the back offices, including the closing rooms.

No one has verified, to my satisfaction, that this in fact did occur. However, it sparked a lively discussion about what is expected of attorneys and closing agents.

Prohibiting or monitoring the ingress and egress of people from your lobby area to the back offices was the focus of most comments. Various suggestions were made such as closing off the lobby from the back offices and having the receptionist make sure no one goes through; keeping the lobby door locked and having key cards for employees to open the doors; requiring that any non-employee be escorted from the lobby to a back office/closing room; creating a guest ledger that all people must sign; and providing "visitor's badges." There were lots of comments.

Of course, the conversation quickly got to the point where people were suggesting that it is impossible to prevent someone from slipping through the lobby and so why bother doing anything? David Slachter provided a much needed voice of reason by pointing out that even if absolute security cannot be guaranteed, you still should take all reasonable steps to prevent a security breach. Do the best you can under the circumstances.

So analyze your office floor plan and "people flow." Begin now to implement reasonable control over who comes and goes "unfettered" through your office. Do not leave papers from a client's file (even if they are old drafts to be thrown away) in a conference room where others may come in to transact business. Require your staff to have a clean desk at the end of the day and provide them with the appropriate filing cabinets and other storage. Seriously consider locking your personal office when you leave every day. It's OK to give your cleaning staff a key, but make sure you do a reasonable level of due diligence on the cleaning company.

I close with a quote from David Slachter, "If it actually did happen, the best theory I can come up with is that the CFPB is doing field studies to see if the lenders that they regulate are actually following through on the CFPB directive that lenders maintain oversight over their third-party vendors."

This got my attention! I hope it gets yours. 

As always, thank you for your support of The Fund!

Best Regards,

Melissa Jay Murphy
Senior Vice President and
General Counsel