January 7, 2026

2025: Some Shimmers of Light in a Dark Year

Happy New Year! While I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping 2026 will bring some — any — improvement over 2025, it’s also fair to say 2025 wasn’t a total washout. There were some very positive advances, the biggest one, of course, being my partnership with Laura Trachtman to form the law firm of Trachtman & Poler Law LLC. It’s been a blast so far, with a sweet new office in DUMBO and a growing list of interesting clients! Equally important, Laura and I have both learned a lot from each other, sharing our unique experiences and perspectives to expand our individual knowledge and skills. 

In the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d kick off the Year of the Horse by recapping some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned and realizations I’ve come to that I wrote about here in 2025. It will help me remember to practice them in the new year (reinforcement is key!). 

  1. I’ve spent years trying to work out the best techniques to help me do things I don’t like doing, like managing nervous clients or promoting myself. I think I’ve got it down now! Two key steps: identifying the problem, and determining its source. To identify the problem, pretty much the first thing every morning I write out, by hand, a list of what I want to get done that day, copying items from the previous day (or days) that I haven’t yet completed. This list lets me see the things that have carried over for a couple days (or, sometimes more, more!) so I can ask myself why I haven’t completed those tasks. Maybe it’s because it feels hard or scary, requires a difficult conversation with a client, or might reveal that I was wrong about something. Whatever the source, once I figure it out, I can do it, because it represents a challenge — and I love a challenge.
  2. Notwithstanding my 20-plus years litigating difficult disputes, I don’t enjoy confrontation. So how do I deal with it? By being true to who I am. When an opponent acts unprofessionally, shouting and threatening, I don’t scream, I don’t threaten. I respond calmly and in a measured way. If they keep banging on, and particularly if they insult me or my client, I will hang up the phone or walk away from the meeting. And if my opponent is one of those who likes to bend truth or ignore facts, I make sure I show up to every interaction, negotiation and trial 100 percent more prepared than they are, and armed with an arsenal of viable solutions. I’m here to help people by representing them, bringing my experience and expertise to achieve their desired goal. Pettiness, anger, and loud, loathsome behavior might work for some, but not me.
  3. Like many nascent attorneys, during law school I got a good internship after my second year, and took a full-time (really, ALL-time) job with them after graduation. Pretty much standard practice. Looking back, I was eager for stability and predictability, and my somewhat chaotic childhood motivated me to choose a well-mapped career path where I would never have to rely on anyone else for financial support. But it wasn’t long before I became less willing to prioritize financial stability over the miseries of working for BigLaw. Eventually, this led to me starting my own firm. That calculation is a key element that I think often gets overlooked by people when they’re mired in the day-to-day of their careers: How much predictability (and income) do you want, how much do you actually need, and how much are you willing to exchange in the short term for more control over your daily work and life and, eventually, long-term satisfaction and earning potential? 
  4. It’s hard to find useful information on business development for lawyers. So I’ve spent a lot of time formulating my own! I’ve learned that the origin point is to give serious thought to a few questions: Who are you? What exactly do you want to do? How do you want to communicate that? Who do you want to work and network with? Perhaps the most important of those questions is, what exactly do you want to do? When I started my firm I worked on a very broad range of cases and matters, basically taking whatever came my way. Guess what? I ended up working on things I had absolutely no interest in and for people I didn’t enjoy spending time with. And in addition to being unhappy with that work, it tends to lead to getting MORE work I didn’t want to do. When I eventually started saying no to cases that didn’t interest me, my work (and my life) became much more satisfying. I was freed to take on interesting cases and work with people I was happy to represent. Plus, it left me time to further refine my skills and deepen my knowledge of the substantive legal areas that I wanted my practice to focus on. 
  5. There have been so many fantastic benefits of my team-up with Laura, but perhaps the most significant to me is the realization that I no longer have to do everything on my own. My default mode in every situation had been, I got this — by myself. But now with a partner and (gasp) an actual employee, I’ve got support. A team! People I can turn to for help when I need it. Plus, having a second set of eyes on any question is especially valuable when the mind behind them brings a different and, often unexpected, perspective. We’re all unique humans and solve problems in distinct ways, and when our talents are combined, that can lead to new and improved results. 

So there you have it. A quick recap of some of the positives I can look back on in 2025. Let’s hope for good things for all of us in 2026!