When Ben Trachtman founded his own practice in 1994, he set out to build a law practice that could sustain his interest, on a day-to-day level, so that every day, when he woke up, he would be excited for (a) the challenge that each work day would bring him; and (b) the opportunity to achieve successes for a broad swath of leading businesses that trusted him with their legal needs. Ben’s goal, which he constantly visualized, was to work with, on a long-term basis, the most successful companies and talented individuals that he could collaborate with, learn from and most of all, respect. While Ben did not coin this notion, he has always believed, based on practicing law for over two decades, that your clients typically mirror the values, sophistication, common sense and skill-set of the lawyers that serve them. At the cornerstone of any successful business relationship, including between attorney and client, two things must exist between the parties: Trust and Respect. The attorney and client either genuinely share these values or they don’t; there is no gray area.
Since Ben’s brother Marc joined the practice in 1997, the Trachtmans have closely worked together to attain the objectives associated with a successful law practice. At our Firm, we employ very simple strategies and/or principles to promulgate long-term relationships with clients to earn their trust and respect. We start with the foundational principle that we are a family run, customer service oriented enterprise that is dedicated to making our clients happy. Otherwise stated, we are dedicated to employing extraordinary “care” to please our clients.
Let’s face it: Litigation is a necessary evil to most successful companies and a successful result in our world does not bring the same pleasure to a client as would a physician performing a successful procedure on a patient that either saves the patient’s life or takes away daily excruciating pain. Notwithstanding same, we give the best we got, the maximum effort we can put out, to obtain a result that makes our clients happy. Sometimes, that will be via a long drawn out battle that ends with a favorable judgment from a jury trial; however, most often, that happiness/satisfaction can be achieved via a well-timed and expertly litigated and negotiated matter that results in an expeditious settlement that reduces significant exposure to our client. In the end, for us, it is not about battling every matter to the end; rather, it is about providing genuine value which takes into account the goal and the cost to achieve it. We are extremely sensitive to the cost component and strive to only do what is necessary to achieve a favorable result that breeds trust and respect. We often say, “we don’t care if we try this case or settle it the very first day we get it…. we just want you to give us the next case.”
Over the years, we have been very selective in the types of cases we will take on as well as who we work with. Life is simply too short to work with people that you do not relate to. Our ideal clients are very successful in their industry or vocation; employ individuals that are intelligent, analytical and who possess a heightened degree of common sense and instincts; are terrific communicators who have the ability to consistently and rationally establish and manage expectations; and who genuinely relish the opportunity to collaborate and work together. As an example, most of our business clientele are extremely successful companies who would rather spend their resources prospectively making money than litigating for those dollars. They would prefer to reasonably compromise disputes; however, if the other party is completely irrational and forces our clients to litigate, our clients will not hesitate to aggressively prosecute or defend a claim to the very end.
In the end, we have strived to be different by our significant attention to detail and the extra level of care that we employ each time a client has trusted us with an assignment to protect their interests. No matter what business you are in, it is always the little things, the details, in the product you see on a daily basis that separates something adequate or good from something that is great or special. We believe that our clients are entitled to be treated special and once we have the good fortune of obtaining a client that we trust and respect, we always keep that client. While we are selective in who we work with, we are always looking to find another wonderful client that possesses the traits above as these clients generate the work, on a day-to-day basis, that makes us excited to come to work every day.
Ben and Marc