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The American College of Mortgage Attorneys (“ACMA” or the “College”) is a voluntary association of attorneys that specializes in mortgage law and real estate finance transactions. ACMA was formed in 1974 as a Georgia non-profit corporation and is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. ACMA’s most important legal activities include improving and reforming laws and procedures affecting real estate secured transactions and raising the level of professionalism of lawyers practicing in this area of law. Today, ACMA has over 500 Fellows representing all fifty states in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canadian provinces.

Reshaping the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
ACMA was founded on May 24, 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia by forty-five attorneys from Georgia and other states from the south and the East Coast. ACMA was borne out of a collective response to the legislation that would eventually become the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (“RESPA”). The RESPA was among the first national laws intending to regulate a part of the economy that had previously been very local in nature, that being private real estate transactions.

Concerned with impact that the proposed legislation would create as it related to mortgage settlements and closings, attorneys from different states joined forces to share knowledge regarding the proposed legislation with their elected representatives in both the House and Senate. The attorneys provided testimony and other input before the House Banking and Currency Committee of Congress in consideration of the proposed legislation. As a result of that effort, a clause was inserted in Section 8 of the RESPA, providing in effect that any language establishing the increased involvement of title companies would not affect the rights of lenders to obtain title certification and closing services from an attorney of their choosing. Thus, the language in the RESPA enabled attorneys to maintain their long-standing relationships with the local lending institutions they had represented for many years and whose interests the attorneys were dedicated to serving and maintaining.

The Founding of the College

Though originally organized to influence the legislative process leading up to the passage of RESPA, the attorneys from the different states had met and found that they had a community of professional interests in their practices. After realizing their shared interests, ACMA was formed in May 24, 1974 as a permanent organization for attorneys specializing in real estate finance transactions for the benefit of the nation’s mortgage attorneys.

ACMA expanded rapidly to its current geographical coverage. Currently, ACMA is represented by attorneys within the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. Since its formation in 1974, ACMA has maintained a dual role of serving as a forum for the exchange of ideas among real estate finance attorneys from all over the nation and beyond and as an interface of those attorneys with the public, including other legal organizations, such as the American Bar Association.

Publications
ACMA manages its own internal publications, namely, The Abstract and the Mortgage Law Summary. These two publications have elevated ACMA’s presence within the legal and institutional lender communities.