Michael G. Trachtman

For the first half of his career, Michael G. Trachtman was a successful commercial litigator – until he ultimately decided to focus his practice on keeping businesses out of trouble instead of getting them out of trouble. There is no better preparation for the avoidance of counterproductive and wasteful disputes and issues than intense, hands-on experience in what leads to those issues and disputes in the first place.

Mr. Trachtman serves as outside general counsel for an array of privately held companies and concentrates on promoting his clients’ operations, growth, and profitability – business planning and problem-solving, contract negotiation and drafting, employment law, protecting key employees and assets, dealing with competitors, implementing business transactions and capitalizing on business opportunities. In the event of litigation he teams with the assigned litigators to provide both strategic and tactical advice and assistance.

Along with his founding partners, in 1988 Mr. Trachtman launched and then built a 35-attorney, multi-disciplinary law firm, Powell Trachtman. In 2018, he accepted a partnership position with another regional law firm, and in 2025 he founded his own practice, Michael G. Trachtman, PLLC.

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. He was selected by a state court to serve as a Discovery Master and a Case Master (assisting the bench to manage its caseload). For almost twenty years he has served as the outside general counsel for a business trade association comprised of over 500 companies.

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.

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.

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.