leigh prather / AdobeStockWhen industry stakeholders and consumers meet in the middle, everyone wins. But that’s not as easy as it sounds. Tapping people with differing industry expertise to be leaders can help your organization see all sides of an issue and reduce friction between the industry and consumers.
Along those same lines, not all paths in the collections industry are linear. In this Executive Q&A we’ll hear from Yale Levy, who went from owning his own collections firm and being President of the National Creditors Bar Association (NCBA) to Director of Client Development at SoloSettle. It’s not the traditional path, but Yale walks through how he got from point A to B to C, why he thinks SoloSettle is a game changer, and provides some concrete examples of reducing friction to create wins for all consumers and debt collectors.
Missy Meggison:
We’re here today with another episode of Executive Q and A. I’m Missy Meggison, editor of insideARM, brought to you by Auriemma Roundtables, and I’m joined today by Yale Levy, director of client development for SoloSettle. Yale, I’ve known you for several years, but those who are reading or watching may not have known you as long as I have. I know you’ve had your own law firm, you were president of NCBA, and now you’re with SoloSettle. Can you let us know how you took that journey? How’d you get from point A to B to C?
Yale Levy:
Yeah, thank you, Missy. I’m glad to be on a call with you. The journey started back in 2004 when I joined the NCBA and attended my first conference. It was really eye-opening, met a lot of people, and over the years my law firm grew from being just in Ohio into a multi-jurisdictional collection law firm working in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, occasionally.
It was a great journey. It was really fun. I did a lot of stuff. I met a lot of people, made a lot of great friends and colleagues. At the end of 2023, I had the opportunity to sell my law firm, and I thought I was going to be retired, you know, walking my dogs, sitting in the sun, laying by the pool, and just being a retired person. Out of the blue, I got this message from LinkedIn, and they said, Hey, we’re looking for somebody that knows collection agencies and collection law firms. We need some help on engaging with them, and would you be interested?
I had nothing to do that day, so I said, yeah, I’m happy to talk to you. After an interview or two and a flight to Salt Lake City, before I knew it, they hired me back in September of 2024. Now I’ve been with SoloSettle for the last seven months, and it’s been a really fun ride. It’s been a great career. So, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at right now.
[Missy]
That’s awesome. I love hearing how people moved from A to B to C when it’s not the typical linear track. So, when you and I spoke previously, you told me that SoloSettle was a “game-changer”. I’d be curious to know, what attracted you to SoloSettle? And why do you consider it a game changer?
[Yale]
Yeah. The reason I call it a “game-changer” is the opportunity to bridge the trust gap between collectors and consumers. SoloSettle already had great credibility with consumers due to their blogs, their education material, and the YouTube videos they do. And I knew I could help them establish trust with collectors and law firms. At its core, settlements are simple, and collectors and consumers both want the same thing: an ideal settlement as fast as possible.
So, I got on board, did a lot of changes initially. When I got on board. I read some of the blogs about my fellow colleagues from the NCBA, and I saw that some of them were maybe not as neutral as they should be, so I really pushed hard and got the CEO to agree to rewrite 3,000 pages of blogs about law firms and collectors, making them much more neutral and fair and informational and factual instead of inflammatory.
I think that is a big step in the right direction. Additionally, I convinced them that debt validation notices and motions to compel arbitrations in the right hands make a lot of sense and are helpful, but when used in mass by consumers that maybe really don’t know what they’re doing, was just a waste of time for collectors and law firms. So, we have disengaged those, taking them off our platform and have stopped giving those to consumers. So that was another step in the right direction.
What I love about SoloSettle, is it saves consumers approximately 45% of what they would pay if a default judgment was granted, court costs and interest were added, and judgment executions like wage garnishment and bank attachment happened. So, I think it’s really a win-win. Collectors get something; they get a fast settlement with less effort. And consumers get something, some cost savings with a settlement that might not be exactly what they wanted, because most of them want to pay nothing, but at least having them pay, you know, 80% of the debt, which is great for consumers and grate for collectors. So, I’m really happy with where I’m at.
[Missy]
That’s really interesting, and as a former collections attorney myself, anytime you can turn a non-payer into a payer. It’s a win. It’s a win all around, right?
[Yale]
Yes.
[Missy]
What do you think the biggest challenge is when it comes to settlements? Why is it so tough for consumers and firms?
[Yale]
Well. The whole system, unfortunately, is based on and built on mistrust. Consumers turn to Google, Tiktok, Instagram for information because they don’t know what to do. They typically don’t know lawyers, and they’ve never been through the process before. And the information Tiktok and Instagram have is that collectors are bad. I know, you know, and probably the people reading this and listening to this blog know collectors aren’t bad. They’re providing a service to consumers trying to get them to pay off their debt, so that they could be debt-free, or at least have less risk of having a post-judgment execution happening.
So settling is the ideal part of the problem. However, most 60% of consumers don’t know that settlement is an option, and they then avoid contact out of fear. As everybody knows, avoiding contact means likely a default judgment can be granted against you, and then post judgment, of course. That is not good for anybody. So, consumers have high inclination of phone calls, fear, and confusion.
Collectors are spending so much time 20 plus minutes trying to explain to a consumer the legal process, the collection process, the benefit of settlement. But by using SoloSettle we do that for them. We take out that fear. We bridge the communication gap. We encourage consumers to go online, initiate a settlement, and its great for either an acceptance or counter offer from the collector. It’s a win-win for everybody.
[Missy]
So, since you were on the law firm side for so long, do you ever hear from some of your former peers about the platform?
[Yale]
Yes, lots and lots. Part of my job at SoloSettle is director of client development. So I talk to people every day all day long, either by email or on phone. I prefer phone. But we do a lot of email communication as well. And lots of people say it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s surprisingly easy to use, and the new neutrality of the platform makes it comfortable for all parties.
Additionally, what we do is we provide so much education. We have blog posts. We have YouTube videos, we have experts coming online all the time explaining the benefits of settlement and what the value is for them. And once law firms try it and actually accept it instead of push away from it, they realize what a great benefit it could be for them and their processes and getting the easy cases taken care of, so that your collectors and lawyers could spend more time on the hard cases that need that attention.
[Missy]
So do you have any fun stories about a consumer and a law firm meeting in the middle?
[Yale]
Yeah, I got a great story. This was when I first started about 5, 6 months ago. I was talking. I was doing a demo for a law firm in New Jersey, and I was showing him our collector dashboard, which is revolutionary, allows you to communicate with the consumer in 2 to 3 min, and we saw that there was a consumer that made an offer on a debt buyer account that was 18 months in the past that was never countered or responded to by the law firm.
The lawyer on the other side of the phone said, oh, my God, this one’s dead, let’s just move on. And then we gave it a second look and said, wait a minute, why don’t we just do an offer? It costs nothing. It’s frictionless, it’s easy. And let’s see what happens. So, the law firm, the lawyer, made an offer which was reasonable and doable. It was a monthly payment plan over time.
Lo and behold! Out of the blue, the next day, not the next week, not the next month, but the next day, the consumer responded to the counteroffer from the law firm, accepted it on the spot, and the law firm was able to put a settlement agreement through the collector dashboard. The consumer signed it and sent it back all through Docusign, and it was done. Like Kaboom. I mean, how remarkable is that! a deal that was 18 months without being responded to, and the collector accepted it in one day and sealed the deal. A win for the law firm, a win for their client and a win for the consumer.
[Missy]
That’s a fun story. I bet they were happy to get that resolved after that length of time. So, if a law firm wants to get started with SoloSettle. What do they need to do?
[Yale]
It’s so easy. We have a thousand plus law firms right now, engaging on our platform and using our collector dashboard. Again, some of them still don’t, but a lot of people are using it.
What they need to do is reach out to me. My name, again is Yale. My email address is yale@solosuit.com. That’s yale@solosuit.com, and I can onboard them if they’re not already onboarded. If they need a demo or support. I’m happy to do that at any time. Just reach out to me. I could demo the product, show it to you. It is so easy. I do it every day of the week. People love it, and the collective dashboard is revolutionary.
[Missy]
Awesome. Well, thanks, Yale. I certainly learned a lot about how consumers and debt collectors can meet in the middle if they have the right tools. Thanks for answering all my questions. Do you have any closing and final thoughts for the audience?
[Yale]
No. Again, I really enjoyed my time at SoloSettle, and I really appreciate you giving me the time on insideARM to advocate for why people should be using SoloSettle. It is a totally neutral platform that is consumer-initiated. All law firms and collectors need to do is just respond. You typically get an email from the consumer, or you could use the collector dashboard. We have two different ways to communicate with them, but they both go the same direction once you communicate and respond. So, thank you again, Missy, for your time.
[Missy]
Awesome. Thanks, Yale, and thank you everyone who either read the transcript or watched this video. We’ll see you the next time we do an executive Q & A.
[Yale]
Thanks.
