Indirect Auto Lenders After the Credit Acceptance Multistate Judgment: Setting Affordability Lines and Redrafting Dealer Agreements

Marci V. Kawski, Partner | Husch Blackwell LLP

Marci V. Kawski is a Partner at Husch Blackwell LLP in Madison, Wisconsin, where she leads the firm’s national Consumer Financial Services practice. She counsels consumer finance providers across the country, including motor vehicle sales finance companies, installment lenders, banks, credit unions, fintechs, and online lenders, on compliance policies and procedures, complex compliance questions, and negotiations before state and federal regulators. She is especially well suited to this program: she leads a national practice serving motor vehicle sales finance companies, helped a sales finance company build its compliance management system, and has filed auto finance amicus briefs in the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, bringing the perspective of counsel who turns new regulatory expectations into lender controls.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Kawski received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif, and her B.A. with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is admitted in Wisconsin, before the federal district and bankruptcy courts in Wisconsin, the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Kawski is ranked by Chambers USA in Consumer Finance (Compliance), Nationwide (2024-2026), recommended by The Legal 500 United States (2024-2026), and named Highly Regarded by IFLR 1000 United States (2022-2025). She also served on the Wisconsin Judicial Commission (2022-2025).

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Kawski is counsel to the Emerging Issues Subcommittee of the American Financial Services Association’s Law Committee, Vice Chair of the Personal Property Financing Subcommittee of the ABA Consumer Financial Services Committee, legal advisor to the American Association of Consumer Vehicle Lessors, and a member of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law Governing Committee. She spoke on AI and dynamic pricing at the dealership at the 2026 ABA Business Law Fall Meeting.

• Experience

Ms. Kawski helped a sales finance company develop its compliance management system and resolved state regulators’ claims against a major credit union so it could keep operating its indirect lending program. She filed amicus briefs supporting the Fifth Circuit challenge that vacated the FTC’s CARS Rule and the Fourth Circuit appeal confirming that vehicle financing with a GAP waiver is exempt from the Military Lending Act, and she prevailed before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Security Finance v. Kirsch, which limited creditor liability under the Wisconsin Consumer Act.

Rachel J. Myers, Associate | Husch Blackwell LLP

Rachel J. Myers is an Associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Husch Blackwell LLP, where she represents banks, fintechs, and nonbank lenders, including auto finance companies and student loan servicers, in regulatory compliance, enforcement matters, and consumer financial services litigation. She represents clients during regulatory examinations and in investigations by federal regulators and state attorneys general. She is especially well suited to this program: she has counseled consumer financial services providers through investigations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Attorneys General, and has helped auto finance clients prepare for and respond to examination findings, bringing the perspective of counsel who works directly with state enforcers and examiners.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Myers earned her J.D. and an M.A. from Indiana University and her B.A. from The College of Wooster. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York. Before law school, she received a Fulbright grant to teach advanced English at a university in Russia, and she is proficient in Russian.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Myers chairs the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly Young Lawyers Alliance and regularly appears on the District of Columbia’s Pro Bono Honor Roll. Her pro bono work includes winning a grant of asylum for a client in U.S. Immigration Court.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Myers is a member of the American Bar Association’s Affordable Housing and Community Development Publications Committee, the District of Columbia Bar, and the New York State Bar Association. Earlier, she worked with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in its Middle East and North Africa Division on legal development and comparative law projects. Her recent writing addresses rising enforcement under the Servicemember Civil Relief Act.

• Experience

Ms. Myers has represented consumer financial products and services providers in investigations by the CFPB, the FTC, the New York Department of Financial Services, and the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Attorneys General, and has guided clients through CFPB and New York DFS examinations in the auto finance, consumer finance, and debt collection sectors. She advises lenders and servicers on the FDCPA, FCRA, ECOA, SCRA, and the UDAAP provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, and counsels payments clients on EFTA, TILA, Nacha rules, and card network rules. She has also drafted client policies and procedures covering FCRA, compliance management systems, BSA/AML, and vendor oversight.

SESSION 1 – How State Attorneys General Will Use the 41-State Subprime Auto Judgment Against Other Lenders | Rachel J. Myers | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session examines the September 17, 2026 Credit Acceptance multistate judgment from the perspective of counsel for an indirect auto lender that did not sign it. Attorneys will learn how the coalition’s “knew or should have known” affordability theory, numeric terms, and sunset structure will be pressed in the next civil investigative demand or term sheet, how to structure a privileged model review, and how to set posture toward the Executive Committee states and the ten states that did not sign. Attendees will leave with a map of the decree’s terms sorted by clock and an outline for the memo deciding whether a non-bound client adopts the 109 percent cap and the 13 percent after-tax payment-to-net-income line by number or documents its own standard.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Gap-Assessing an Indirect Auto Program and Redrafting the Dealer Agreement for Affordability and Add-Ons | Marci V. Kawski | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session runs an indirect auto program against the numeric terms of the Credit Acceptance Final Judgment and Consent Decree, which does not bind the client but implements on a six-month clock. Attorneys will learn how to test a book against the para. 18 off-ramp tiers and para. 19 underwriting terms, the para. 20-21 pricing controls, the para. 22-25 add-on and tracking-device terms, and the stacked retention periods, and how to turn the terms a client adopts into system controls and enforceable dealer-agreement clauses. Attendees will leave with a privileged gap-assessment checklist keyed to paragraph and retention period, a redline clause set for the dealer agreement, and a reasoned position on which numbers to hard-code and which to leave as monitored policy.