Attorney Profiles

Marlon L. Bates has practiced real estate and lender support law, including both transactional work and litigation, since graduating from law school in 1986. He has been a partner at the firm since 1991 and currently serves as the firm's managing partner. He represents a wide variety of clients including banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, loan servicing companies, title insurance companies, property managers, developers, landlords, real estate brokers, and many other businesses.

The largest segment of Marlon's practice concentrates on supporting lenders in their lending. He has prepared loan documentation packages, forbearance agreements, loan modification agreements, deeds in lieu of foreclosures, and has handled thousands of foreclosures, bankruptcies and lawsuits for such clients as Washington Mutual Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Mountain America Federal Credit Union, CIT Small Business Lending Corp. and Banco Popular. Within the real estate area, Marlon has represented clients in buying and selling real property, solving title problems, boundary disputes, and a wide variety of real estate issues.

Under Marlon's direction, Scalley Reading was recently honored by Fidelity National Foreclosure Solutions as one of its top six law firms, from over 350 law firms it uses nationwide, for excellence in both foreclosures and bankruptcies. He is regularly selected by his peers as one of Utah's top attorneys in Utah Business Magazine's listing of Utah's Legal Elite. He has a well-trained team of paralegals and associates who assist him in doing this work quickly and inexpensively.

Marlon also has a great deal of experience in litigation. He has tried cases before state and federal courts, and has handled appeals before the Utah Court of Appeals and the Utah Supreme Court. He served as a Small Claims Court judge for seven years and has taught continuing legal education courses on real estate litigation and evictions, and title insurance courses on real estate liens and foreclosures.

Marlon earned an Associates of Arts Degree (highest honors) from Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho in 1981. He then received a Bachelors Degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in 1983. In 1986, he received his Juris Doctor Degree from the National Law Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he was selected to be a member of the Moot Court Honors Board and the Consumer Protection Reporting Service.