The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been discreetly broadening its influence on statutory and regulatory interpretations through its largely unannounced filing of amicus curiae briefs in a handful of important cases brought by private litigants, according to an analysis of the CFPB’s legal activity by two leading industry attorneys.Since December 2011, the bureau has filed six such “friend-of-the-court” briefs in federal appellate cases, always assuming the role of steadfast consumer advocate, according to a review of the briefs by Arthur Axelson and Jeffrey Jamison, senior counsel and associate, respectively, with the Dykema law firm. In fact, “in several of its amicus curiae briefs, the CFPB has even sought to reverse a general consensus among the federal appellate courts,” the pair noted. In Birster v. American Home Mortgage Services, Inc., filed Dec. 21, 2011, in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the question of interest to the bureau was whether activity surrounding foreclosure is immune from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The CFPB argued that it is not. In Marx v. General Revenue Corp., filed Jan. 26, 2012, in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, there were...