BUSINESS SENSE. LEGAL INGENUITY
With roots dating back to 1950, DRM has grown to employ more than 120 legal professionals, including approximately 55 attorneys at offices in Burlington, St. Johnsbury, Brattleboro, and Montpelier, and also Lebanon, N.H. With unmatched versatility, depth, and breadth in our legal practice, we are enabled to serve clients – whether in Vermont, regionally, nationally, or internationally – in a wealth of areas:
- Business law
- Captive insurance
- Complex projects
- Creditors’ rights and bankruptcy
- Data security, privacy and cybercrimes
- Energy law
- Environmental law, land use, and permitting
- Food and beverage law
- Government and public affairs
- Health care law
- Intellectual property
- International services
- Labor and employment
- Legislative and regulatory services
- Litigation
- Real estate
- Tax law
- Telecommunications law
- Traumatic brain injury and catastrophic personal injury
- Trusts and estates
- White collar defense and government enforcement
Our versatility enables us to capitalize on the values of collaboration and teamwork in everything we do, and allows us to approach and conquer any problem with a very diverse set of viewpoints, perspectives, experience, interests, and personalities.
As founding member Bob Rachlin has aptly observed, “Despite its growth, Downs Rachlin continues to be nourished by its rural roots and strives to project historic Vermont values: integrity, reliability, hard work.”
A PRINCIPLED APPROACH
At DRM, we are driven by a recognition of – and a firm commitment to – a number of fundamental guiding principles.
As a provider of sophisticated legal services, we believe in developing a clear understanding of our clients’ goals and making those goals our highest priority, so that we are best equipped to achieve success. This is important to us not only in a professional sense with our clients, but also on a personal level with them. In other words, we treat our clients’ problems as our own. And it goes without saying that we are highly passionate about our commitment to delivering exceptional quality to our clients, so much so that we consider exceeding expectations to be the rule rather than the exception.
Integrity and respect are big at DRM. We always strive to do the right thing, not just for our clients but also for each other. We demonstrate honesty and integrity in all interactions – with our clients, with other attorneys and their staff, with other parties involved in our matters, with public officials, with the public and, of course, within the firm. Bottom line: We treat everyone with courtesy and respect.
We place a very high value on firm-wide teamwork and mentoring. The reason is simple – collaboration among our lawyers, paralegals, and staff, and across our diverse practice areas, makes us far more successful than we would be acting on our own. Pitching in to help others meet client needs, exploring opportunities outside our individual areas of responsibility, communicating often with each other, and appreciating everyone’s unique skills and experience are the norm at DRM. By the same token, we strive to maintain a work environment that attracts and retains dedicated, experienced, and hard-working people, and that fosters their ongoing career growth. We welcome and encourage entrepreneurial thinking and the development of specialized areas of practice.
Finally, we take pride in giving back to the communities in which we work and live, devoting both time and money to activities that better the lives of those less fortunate and that support the social and cultural richness of our communities. We serve on boards and committees for a wide variety of non-profits, remain active with both regional and local chambers and other associations, and volunteer at charitable functions and events.
MORE THAN BUSINESS SENSE AND LEGAL INGENUITY
You’ve probably seen or heard us use the tagline “Business Sense ▪ Legal Ingenuity” in our advertising – and at the top of this spotlight. While we stand by that claim, we’re much more than that, too. We are a sophisticated, cutting-edge legal practice, but with a small-town feel. And just as exceptional client service is important to us, so too are community, family, and all the intangibles Vermont has to offer.
