Lawyers Don't Sell Expertise They Sell Trust with Marty Frenkel

3 Takeaways from my conversation with Marty Frankel Co-Chair, Financial Services & Real Property Litigation Group, Executive Committee Member, Maddin Hauser

1. Lawyers sell trust — not expertise.

Competence is the baseline. What clients really need is someone on their team who owns their problem with urgency.

2. Find the issue behind the issue.

Ask questions. Build rapport. What someone walks in with is rarely what's really keeping them up at night.

3. Delay gratification. Plan long.

Reverse engineer from three years out. That's not just career advice — that's a life strategy.

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MARTIN ("Marty") S. FRENKEL, shareholder and executive committee member, is a multidisciplinary problem solver who consistently delivers sound, pragmatic business counsel and instills in his clients the confidence that comes from knowing that he always has their back. Whether it is the end-to-end, compliance-to-courtroom representation and advocacy he provides mortgage, financial services, and construction companies or the myriad ways he helps clients from a wide range of other industries steer clear of risk and achieve their goals, Marty charts the course that gets his clients where they want to go.

Co-Chair of Maddin Hauser's Financial Services and Real Property Litigation and Surety and Construction groups, Marty has established himself as one of Michigan's most accomplished and versatile attorneys. His ability to holistically address the full spectrum of day-to-day and long-term issues faced by small business owners and large institutions alike is why he is often retained to serve as their outside general counsel or as an adjunct to their in-house legal teams. Recognizing that the best attorney-client relationships are built on a foundation of both trust and collaboration, Marty works seamlessly with his clients to understand the problems behind the problems by actively listening to what they say, as well as what they don't.

Marty focuses his practice on real estate and financial services risk management, litigation, and regulatory compliance, including matters involving mortgage, banking, construction, real estate development, landlord/tenant, and title-related issues. For mortgage industry clients, Marty brings a 360-degree perspective to his work, a product of his extensive participation in high-level mortgage regulatory compliance matters, the negotiation and drafting of core documentation and business agreements, and hundreds of loan-level mortgage litigation disputes. This full-spectrum experience allows him to serve his financial services clients efficiently, cost-effectively, and with minimized risk while navigating the myriad mortgage origination and servicing processes that are always subject to changing laws, regulations, and market conditions.

While Marty possesses unmatched been-there, seen-that insights, he is acutely aware that past experience alone is no guarantee of future success. That is why he prioritizes agile, forward-looking thinking and stays ahead of the ever-evolving legal and economic landscapes in which his clients do business.