Katherine Porter, California’s new bank watchdog

California homeowners have a new watchdog for the recent multi-state foreclosure settlement. State Attorney General Kamala Harris named UC Irvine law professor Katherine Porter to the post today.

She will oversee the promises that five major banks made in their $25 billion settlement of investigations into various foreclosure abuses.

Porter says banks are currently working on ways to contact homeowners, as part of the settlement plan. “I think a big aspect of the settlement, and what the Attorney General of California was trying to accomplish here, is improving practices and procedures so that consumers don’t encounter so many stumbling blocks along the way to getting help,” Porter said.

Porter is a former student of Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is now running for U.S. Senate. Porter led a 2007 study that uncovered abusive foreclosure practices like “robo-signing” that led to this national mortgage settlement.