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Melissa A. Huelsman is the principal of Law Offices of Melissa A. Huelsman P.S. She is a Seattle-based attorney admitted to practice in Washington and California (inactive), and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, United States District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, and the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Her practice involves plaintiffs’ civil litigation in the areas of predatory lending and mortgage loan servicing, foreclosure defense, fraud and foreclosure rescue scams. She also practices in the United States Bankruptcy Courts.
Ms. Huelsman is a founder and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Northwest Consumer Law Center, a non-profit dedicated to the representation of consumers on financial issues and she sits on the Board of CENTS, financial literacy non-profit. She has spoken on the issues of predatory lending, foreclosure defense and foreclosure rescue scams at numerous CLEs and bar functions. She was named King County Bar Association’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2006 and was previously recognized by VLS as one of its Volunteers of the Year. She has received a similar award from the Urban League of Seattle/Metropolitan King County and was named 2012 Pro Bono Honoree by Columbia Legal Services.
Melissa has advocated for the rights of consumers since she opened her law practice in Seattle in 2001. She has focused her practice primarily on litigation related to predatory mortgage lending, foreclosure rescue scams and on violations of foreclosure statutes, and she routinely represents people facing foreclosure in foreclosure mediations. She also practices bankruptcy law. Melissa has contributed to numerous legal publications and manuals on mortgage lending and foreclosure litigation, and wrote a treatise on foreclosure rescue scams for Lexis-Nexis. She has testified before the Washington State Legislature numerous times and worked on laws relating to mortgage credit insurance, mortgage broker and lender regulations, nonjudicial foreclosures, the Consumer Protection Act, and she has contributed to writing and passing into law significant changes to the Deed of Trust Act, including the Foreclosure Fairness Act and the Washington Distressed Property Act. Ms. Huelsman has handled two landmark cases on deed of trust foreclosure in Washington, Bain v. Metro. Mrtg. Group, Inc., 175 Wn.2d 83, 97, 285 P.3d 34 (2012) and Frias v. Asset Foreclosure Services, Inc., 181 Wn.2d 412, 334 P.3d 529 (2014). She co-counseled on the case of Lyons v. U.S. Bank, 336 P.3d 1142 (2014) and has obtained other favorable appellate decisions, including Cabage v. Northwest Trustee Srvs., Inc., Case No. 45953-1 (Wash. Ct. App. 2015); Keahey v. Jared (In re Keahey), No. 90-6000, 2011 WL 288966 (9th Cir., Jan. 31, 2011); Gunsul v. Countrywide Home Loans, 169 P.3d 830 (2007). She has also assisted with the writing of amicus briefs in other appellate cases.
Ms. Huelsman has spoken regularly on the issues of predatory lending, foreclosure defense and foreclosure rescue scams for numerous organizations, including the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), National Association for Consumer Advocates (NACA), National Business Institute (NBI), WSBA, WA Attorney General ThinkTank 2007, Oregon State Bar Association, KCBA, King County Housing Authority, the Urban
League and other community organizations. She has been interviewed by foreign and domestic journalists regarding predatory lending, mortgage loan servicing, foreclosure rescue scams and wrongful foreclosures, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Los Angeles Times, the Daily Journal of Los Angeles, Huffington Post, Bloomberg.com, MSNBC, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Tacoma News Tribune (Knight Rider publications), Seattle Weekly and many others. She was quoted in the NCLC Report, Dreams Foreclosed, has contributed to NCLC’s Foreclosure Manual and to the Washington Appleseed Judge’s Manual, as well as other publications. Ms. Huelsman has been interviewed by Nightline, NPR, other public radio stations, several local television stations’ news programs, on local radio stations and by a French investigative television program. Ms. Huelsman has written numerous articles for the WSBA publications, King County Bar Bulletin, the ABA Solo Practitioner publication and a treatise on foreclosure rescue scams Lexis-Nexis.
Ms. Huelsman received her B.A. in English from California State University at Fullerton in 1993 and her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles in 1997. During law school, she was a writer for and the Managing Editor of The Commentator, President of The Criminal Law Society and received an award for her community service efforts assisting victims of domestic violence.
She is a proud member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, Washington State Association for Justice and the Public Justice Foundation.