Law Firm & Life
August 19, 2025
By Emily Poler
Six months ago (or thereabouts), Laura and I wrote a joint post to introduce our new firm of Trachtman & Poler. More recently, Laura wrote her own update about how our team-up has changed her approach to work and its effect on her life. Now it’s my turn.
The hardest thing for me has been confronting the fact that I no longer have to do everything on my own. It’s still very much a work in progress, but I’m getting there (I think!). Perhaps my ingrained independence has to do with the way I grew up, or maybe it’s the fact I was working solo for seven-ish years, but my default mode in every situation has 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.
Along those lines, learning to leverage each other’s strengths has been great. A second set of eyes on any question is always helpful, but they are 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.
Another key evolution has been learning how to speak up about the little (and sometimes not so little) things so that they don’t turn into big problems later. This is especially critical when there’s a lot going on and it’s easy to let things slide. Here’s a perfect example: Prior to settling on our fabulous offices in DUMBO (if you’re in the neighborhood, please come say hi), we looked at a bunch of other spaces and saw some that we really loved but weren’t quite right. We eventually decided on one that seemed like it would work. But before we committed, Laura spoke up and said what I was also sort of thinking, but hadn’t fully realized (or had the time to realize): the space was just okay, and not what we really wanted. We needed to keep looking. So we did, and we won. The short lesson here: If you have something to say, say it!
Of course, everything isn’t perfect yet. I’m still a one-woman IT department over here; this remains the bane of my existence. I feel like Google Customer Support folks must roll their eyes every time I contact them (yes, it’s a lot) and G-chat each other “Oh, it’s her again.” Is getting our systems up and running and talking to one another easier than it would have been 10 or 15 years ago? Absolutely. Is it seamless? Definitely not.
But that’s a relatively minor irritant. The first few months of our partnership have been incredible, and I am so excited for the future here.
July 29, 2025
By Laura Trachtman
About six months ago, after months of planning and discussing, Emily and I combined our practices. We wrote a combined blog post about the hardest and best aspects of combining our practices. Today’s post is a little update on that, and what we’ve learned and accomplished in the process.
The hardest part of combining practices, six months later, has gotten easier – while I struggled at first with the proactive versus reactive approach, now it seems not only perfectly reasonable to me, but the obvious choice (brief reminder – the reactive approach is simply taking all the work that comes to your door, while the proactive approach is cultivating the kind of work that you want to do). This has the added benefit of ensuring that I’m only taking the work that not only is the work that I want to do, but is the work that is the most efficient use of my time. Before, I would take basically anything that came down the pike, but now, I have a partner to discuss cases that are referred to me, and she offers her opinion as to whether a case is the best use of my time. As a result, I’ve begun to turn down work, which feels almost like a luxury. Just as I suspected, switching from a reactive approach to a proactive one has, indeed, made me happier.
The best part of combining practices remains having a supportive partner who will always tell me the truth and with whom I have an amazing working relationship. Being able to check in on this topic or that case just to do a reality check is, frankly, clutch.
Because the relationship is so positive, there have been unexpected changes along the way to the plan that Emily and I initially crafted. I had planned to maintain my home office; instead, we found an office space in DUMBO that we both love. We planned to just share expenses, but now, we’re cooperating on optimizing all aspects of our practice. We have already hired our first employee (!!!), and he is doing terrific work. What originally could have been described as a partnership of convenience is now a real partnership, where we work on the same cases, wander into and out of one another’s offices to share news and thoughts, and plan together for the future. This is still very much a work in progress (who gets first dibs on a matter that we both can work on, for example, or who gets priority when we both need time-sensitive assistance from our Litigation Support Assistant), but due to our open and easy lines of communication and trust, I remain excited about what we’ve accomplished so far and what I expect we can accomplish in the future.
June 10, 2025
By Emily Poler
True confession: I was feeling a little stuck about what to write about in this week’s post. At first, I considered the summary judgment motions on fair use in cases against Anthropic and Meta over AI, but I’m kind of over writing about AI at the moment. I also thought about getting into the trademark issues associated with dupes and/or whether the card mahjong players use is copyrightable, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ll likely come back to these topics in coming weeks (especially the one about the mahjong card), but none of these were really inspiring me.
I mean, things feel like a lot right now. Even putting aside the stress of a world burning down around us, work has been super busy. Plus, there are a number of changes afoot here at Trachtman & Poler (all good, and more on that to come). Getting some space in which to free my mind from the parade of daily tasks is a key step in my process of thinking about things, reaching conclusions, and then writing them down for this blog. That space has been missing lately.
And then, it happened. I went to a BigLaw event this week, and seeing all those shiny, soon-to-be 3L students working at large firms for the summer got me thinking about the tradeoffs people make for a career in BigLaw. It also made me ponder some of the myths of what it’s like working at a legal behemoth, as well as the misconceptions people have regarding starting your own law firm. So here we go!
For those who don’t know, BigLaw (yes, that’s how people spell it) firms hire people who have just completed their second year of law school for internships. These jobs pay well, and usually come with a lot of wining and dining meant to lure the “lucky” students into signing their lives over to these firms after graduation. This is exactly what I did.
Why? When you’re starting out as an adult (and plenty of other times too), I think some people want stability and predictability, while others are ok with or hungry for open options and unexpected opportunities. Some of this may be innate, but I also think people’s backgrounds and experiences have a lot to do with how they enter the working world. As you might have guessed, I was one of those eager for stability and predictability.
Without getting too deep into my childhood, let’s just say I grew up in a somewhat chaotic family environment. Looking back, I see how that motivated me to choose a well-mapped career path with a well defined beginning, middle and end, where through sheer hard work and grit I could outlast just about everyone else and make it to the top.
Also, money. Somewhere along the line, probably around 10 or 12 years old, it became pretty clear to me that I couldn’t — or shouldn’t — rely on anyone to support me; I definitely didn’t ever want to have to ask someone else for money. So yeah, it’s kind of obvious why I ended up going to a top law school and working in BigLaw, because if you’re any good at it, it’s a straight climb to making a lot of money pretty quickly.
But, things changed. For starters, my young adult life turned out not to be as financially unpredictable as I had imagined. I managed to graduate college and law school with pretty minimal debt, and by my second year as an attorney I was able to buy an apartment in a neighborhood that, at the time, was considered less than desirable. That meant I knew I’d be able to pay my mortgage even if I took a significant pay cut.
So once the miseries of working for BigLaw began to take their toll on me, losing 20 pounds I would rather have kept and sending me into therapy, I started realizing maybe I didn’t have to stick to the painful BigLaw career path. I became less willing to prioritize financial stability over having control of when I got to and left the office, the clients and cases I handled while I was there, who I worked for, and how I interacted with the people I worked with. So eventually, I left and went to a smaller firm. After that, I started my own firm and, recently, joined forces with the wonderful Laura Trachtman.
This background means that I now really love meeting others who also left BigLaw to forge their own paths. What we all have in common is having made a calculus about the need to balance predictability with exerting a degree of control over how and when we work. 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?
Thinking about all this the past few days, I’ve also come to understand how people tend to look at those of us who took the risk, left high paying jobs and started our own businesses, as being somewhat brave. And sure, it definitely takes a measure of courage to do so. But it’s not necessarily harder than working for BigLaw, it’s just different. Each has its own set of sacrifices, but while the travails of working for a large firm are pretty well known (as are the $$ rewards), the tradeoffs, worries and stresses of going it alone are less well documented. This is something I’ve tried to address periodically on this blog, while also sharing the ways I’ve overcome the obstacles and made it work for me. It’s been very gratifying to hear from people that my thoughts and insights into starting and growing one’s own business have been appreciated. And hopefully, it’s helped a few people make that leap for themselves. Because one thing is certain: The sacrifices and hardships of going it alone are, ultimately, more than compensated by the freedoms and satisfactions of choosing your own road to success.
April 29, 2025
By Emily A. Poler
Over the past few years, I’ve had a bunch of conversations with attorney friends about growing a business, whether it’s building a small firm like mine or increasing a client list (a “book of business”) within a larger firm. Despite the fact that these friends work for organizations that are either “BigLaw” or a lot closer to “BigLaw” than my (now) two-person firm, there is a lot of overlap between what I do and what they do (or want to do) in their workplaces. When we’re talking, I inevitably end up recommending business books that I’ve found helpful. And now, I’m sharing them with you!
First, a caveat: I am generally not a fan of “self-help” books; most, if not all, spend hundreds of pages regurgitating a basic premise that could be easily conveyed in a single chapter. Each of the books below could most definitely be shorter. However, if you can wade through the dreck, you will find valuable nuggets of wisdom in each of these.
- Traction by Gino Wickman – This book introduced the “Entrepreneurial Operating System” and is closely associated with the Entrepreneurs Organization. I have problems with both of those things. As a result, this book sat unread on my shelf for years. But I finally pulled it out, and I was glad I did — it’s a classic for good reason. If you’re running your own business this book has some really indispensable points about figuring out and setting your goals, and how to use them to guide a whole range of business activities. It’s similarly useful if you’re running or developing your own area within a larger organization because defining goals that drive you forward is equally important in that environment.
- Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by Michael Port – Yes, the title is awful. The book, however, is pretty good, despite being somewhat similar to Traction in its focus on identifying and setting goals. For me, this was the book that finally convinced me to not try a little bit of this area of law and a little bit of that, but instead focus on the types of work I really want to handle and the clients I really want to work with.
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport – As the title suggests, this book is for anyone, not just those trying to develop their businesses. That said, it is particularly useful for anyone in a position of selling their own expertise and experience because, at its heart, Deep Work is about slowing down, putting your phone aside, and not jumping to respond to every email as it flies in. Instead, this book encourages you to focus on thinking about the bigger questions and solving the problems we all face in our work and personal lives — the more important things that require the “deep work” of the book’s title and that ultimately lead to greater business (and personal) growth.
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman – The book’s title comes from the fact that the average human lifespan is about 4,000 weeks (gulp!). It uses this jumping off point to talk about how “efficiency” and “time saving strategies” are myths and that life, including how you use your time, requires hard choices about what is and isn’t important. The main lesson: Focus on what’s actually important instead of frantically trying to do everything that comes one’s way.
That final point is one I cannot emphasize enough. Focusing on the big things has been invaluable for me the past few years. It’s helped my business grow in ways that made me more satisfied, engaged, and successful, which of course has made every aspect of my life better. For that lesson, and many others, I heartily recommend these books.
April 17, 2025
By Emily Poler
My approach to this blog has been to keep it fairly light by writing about celebrity defamation cases and tech-related copyright infringement with an occasional dip into my experiences growing a business. However, right now, there are way more important and disastrous things going on in the United States. For me, as a lawyer, I am particularly concerned about the rule of law, lawyers’ role in protecting the rule of law, and President Donald Trump’s attacks on the rule of law.
If you’ve been under a rock lately and haven’t heard about this, lucky you! Can I join you?
To bring those of you not following along up to speed and to share my pain, the Trump administration has taken aim at the rule of law in a whole bunch of different ways. Among other things, it is ignoring clear court orders, and trying to punish law firms that represent clients whom Trump doesn’t like or employ lawyers who, at one point, represented clients that Trump doesn’t like. In some cases, Trump has issued executive orders calling for the termination of government contracts with these firms and with companies represented by these firms, while also attempting to bar their attorneys from even entering federal buildings — a big problem if you’re a lawyer representing clients in federal courts.
Three firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block — have fought back and obtained an order blocking Trump’s executive order against them. I have to applaud the work of Williams & Connolly, the firm that has represented Perkins Coie, for some really excellent advocacy. If you’re at all curious about what really stellar legal briefs look like, I’d recommend checking out the materials they’ve submitted on behalf of their law firm client because they’re really well written. As they wrote, “The [executive] [o]rder is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients.”
The judges hearing these cases have, thus far, uniformly ruled that Trump’s executive orders are blatantly unconstitutional because, among other things, they punish lawyers and/or law firms for their speech which, you know, is in direct violation of the First Amendment. (There are other huge issues as well, but I’m trying not to get too in the weeds here.)
Depressingly, several firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Paul Weiss, have chosen not to fight back against Trump’s executive orders and have, in fact, caved to Trump’s demands. Indeed, these firms have, among other things, agreed to donate their attorneys’ legal services to Trump’s pet causes. In the case of Skadden, which appears to have signed on without Trump even threatening them, this agreement requires Skadden to provide $100 million in pro bono services to the Trump administration and supposedly is in effect both while Trump is in office and beyond (at least this is what Trump says, so who knows how literally true it is). If you want to see something horrible, go to their website to see how they now proudly proclaim their role as Trump’s legal attack dogs.
Let me just start by saying, even though of course it should go WITHOUT saying, that none of this should be happening, especially in the United States where we have a Constitution that is clearly written to prevent such dictatorial actions. Moreover, while I’m furious and disgusted at the firms that caved to Trump, this should not be read as blaming the victim; they’re obviously terrified of having their businesses crippled. I think we all know where the real blame lies.
With that said, what are these firms thinking? How can they agree to these types of “deals” that are blatantly against the law, instead of standing up and fighting for the very laws that their attorneys promised to uphold? Moreover, how exactly does the leadership of these firms think they’re going to make money if laws don’t matter anymore? What would even be the point of having lawyers?
Does this sound extreme? Ok, maybe. Nonetheless, as has been VERY evident these past few weeks, constraints on unpredictable behavior and government corruption are important for a flourishing economy, because it is only in a healthy economy that businesses and individuals are able to do the kind of deals for which they hire attorneys like those at Skadden Arps and Paul Weiss. If everything goes to hell, there won’t be any work for them anyway.
