I have interviewed a couple, I was told by my local RE Attorney that I need to go with one of the big firms, Buckingham Doolittle and Burroughs, or Shottenstein Sox and Dunn out of Columbus to get the securities questions answered that I was asking, and I had a lot of them after attending a couple private money seminars.
I met with both firms top securities attorneys, interesting conversations and conclusions.
Today we don't use a securities attorney, although we have a couple million in private loans.
I just make sure we dont borrow from little old ladies who don't understand the risk, there is no amount of disclosure that will keep you out of trouble if you do that, even with the best written disclosure signed and acknowledged by your lender.
We do all our loans, one lender per property, only from people who have a reasonable understanding of risk. They get first mortgage, promissory note, get added as additional insured, pretty much what a bank would get if they funded and carried the first mortgage.
Sure simplifies things.