Corporate Vision April 2017
40 CORPORATE VISION / April 2017 , Judi Rentschler was recently named as 2016 Female Lawyer of the Year – California, and in this special article, she reveals more about her own role in Rentschler/Tursi, LLP (R/T). This is a boutique lawfirm specialising in commercial real estate, including brokerage, leasing, sales, and litigation. Navigating Large Financial Commitments Our typical client is either (a) the small business owner ready to sign a lease or buy a building for his or her business; or (b) the small to mid-level investor who owns, leases or is selling income- producing property, or (c) the commercial real estate broker or agent seeking advice real estate licensing law, a difficult transaction, or a dispute. Our Niche In our decades of experience, we have seen the many ways in which a deal can turn sour, so we have a unique perspective to recognise and prevent potential problems. Few real estate lawyers in the Bay area know real estate brokerage law, and what happens when a contract is poorly drawn, and how to try the case if things do go wrong. I think our clients feel better protected knowing that we can spot potential issues quickly and come up with solutions before they get in trouble. My role, key responsibilities and background As the head of a small firm, I handle the management, personnel, library, administrative and accounting work. As to the legal work, while all of us work on leasing, sales, and disputes, I handle all of our clients’ business - formation legal work, financing documentation and complex transactions. I opened the firm in 1996, after 10 years as a personal injury trial lawyer and 10 working in-house for CBRE as a commercial trial lawyer. Yes, it is what I aspired to do: I chose law to help people – to understand the laws that impact their real estate investments, and to navigate what for many is the largest financial commitment they’ve ever made. Staff management Our team is like family, and I treat them with the trust and respect they have earned. My key principles in this respect are to make the time to make sure that the directions are clear and certain, articulate expectations and to hold employees accountable. The most important principle is to have a life and to enjoy your family! Work hard when you are at work, but don’t let it consume you. Challenges I believe that the biggest challenge has been gender bias in the courtroom. For ten years, I was the only woman lawyer in a prestigious trial firm. On Mondays, when the courts called all cases set for trial, of all the milling lawyers, there were about 49 men to 1 woman. Men, 1701CV88 even my mentor, told me that a woman could not be an effective advocate: if we are strong, we are seen as bitchy, something that would be sure to turn off a jury. The worst were the judges, though; especially in chambers, although some didn’t hesitate to show their disrespect in front of the jury. Once, I was handling a wrongful death case, representing the widow. The family lived in a rundown tenement - the elevator was the old style with a collapsing door - and it only worked some of the time. While his wife and child watched in horror, the husband opened the elevator door to peer up the shaft to see where the car was. It was a horrible death and I was suing the slumlord. Two weeks before trial, my opponent and I, and our clients met with a judge to try to settle the case. This judge first ridiculed my case and the decedent, in front of his widow, then called me back to chambers and asked who was ‘really’ handling the case. He proceeded to call my office, starting at the top of the roster and asking for each of my male colleagues by first name to find a replacement. When no one came down to take over, he postponed the settlement conference to the next week and ordered me to have one of the male attorneys appear. To disprove the bias and stereotype, I did my job and tried cases – big ones, long ones, complex ones –and found that juries did not hate me for being an advocate - and I won (and lost) just as often as did the men. Technology and innovation I think it is important to keep up with the technology that will help make us better and more productive lawyers: access to data and legal resources on line, time management and billing, etc. We stay up to date on the law by reviewing each day’s advance sheets (daily opinions) and industry resources - and whenever a new case, law or regulation impacts our business or that of our clients - we make sure that all of our forms and resources are current and reflect the latest trends in the field. I meet and talk often with real estate brokers about trends and needs. Industry trends Industry trends impact our business a great deal. For example, during the Great Recession, we saw contraction in retail outlets (shopping centres, malls), with tenants in default on their rent; hence we often advised our landlord clients to cut the tenant some slack so he’d still in business when the worst is over. Now, in the Bay Area, it’s
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