Fearful of a lawyer killing your deals? Most likely yes. Need that be the case? No. Can lawyers be better utilized in credit union lending? Absolutely yes.

I am often asked to speak to non-lawyers who work for lenders about the loan documentation process. Never about underwriting or loan commitments. But application-to-underwriting-to-commitment-to-loan documentation-to-closing is closely linked. And it is more than simply one, long hyphenated series of words. It's making the deal.

Occasionally loan originators will contact me with legal issues relating to a loan before they issue a loan application. The smart among them want to ferret out what could become an underwriting issue, and they want to have some level of confidence that an issue that might be a problem is not deal killer. Issues, not lawyers, are deal killers. And should be.