Michael G. Trachtman’s practice has focused on the representation of businesses in the myriad of issues that affect their operations, growth, and profitability – for example, business planning, problem-solving, and contract drafting; structuring arrangements among founders, owners, and investors; preventing, litigating, and resolving business disputes; employment law compliance, policy development and training; protection of trade secrets and key employees through employment agreements and other techniques; dealing with competitors; and managing mergers, acquisitions, and other opportunities.

Mr. Trachtman serves as outside general counsel for an array of closely held companies, and for over a decade has been general counsel to the MidAtlantic Employers’ Association, a trade organization of over 500 companies. Mr. Trachtman has served as an adjunct professor at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and the Charles Widger School of Law at Villanova University, teaching (among other courses) Representation of Closely Held Businesses and Law and Entrepreneurship.

In 2019, Mr. Trachtman founded and became the Director of the Wisler Pearlstine General Counsel Initiative, a unique, multidisciplinary approach to providing businesses with an outside general counsel capability that minimizes legal issues and maximizes the ability to capitalize on opportunities.

Mr. Trachtman is the author of What Every Executive Better Know About the Law, published by Simon and Schuster, and The Four Mistakes – Avoiding the Legal Landmines That Lead to Business Disaster, published by Sterling Publishing. He is also the author of The Supremes’ Greatest Hits: The 44 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life, now in its third edition, published by Sterling Publishing. The Supremes‘ has been featured by organizations such as the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Savannah Book Festival, and the Bryant Park Reading Room, and is used as a classroom text in various colleges, universities, and high schools.

Mr. Trachtman holds the highest Martindale-Hubbell peer review ratings for professional ability and ethical standards and has been named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers List since 2005.

The author of numerous articles published by business and professional organizations, Mr. Trachtman is a frequent lecturer to business and professional groups on topics pertaining to the intersections between law and business. He has been featured on radio and television programs throughout the country, including the Michael Smerconish Program, Daybreak USA (USA Network), Simply Put (Bloomberg Radio), Culture Shocks (Genesis Communications Network), Voice of America, and NPR, as well as in Mashable.com and NBC.com. The Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the educational arm of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, selected Mr. Trachtman to serve as a panelist or moderator on a variety of seminar topics, including the representation of closely held and family-owned businesses (where he also served as the course planner), the first 100 days of the Obama administration (along with Michael Isikoff and Byron York, among others), litigation techniques, constitutional law, law firm management, and professional ethics.

Mr. Trachtman graduated with honors from both Dickinson College, in 1971, and the Villanova University School of Law, in 1974, where he was selected to serve as Case and Comment Editor of the Villanova Law Review, in which he published two articles. Upon his graduation, he was elected by the faculty to the Order of the Coif (a national law honorary), the law school’s highest honor.