Chicago Lawyer Magazine Q & A with Marcus Fruchter '04

Excerpted from ChicagoLawyer.com

Marcus Fruchter
Age: 38.
Family: He and his wife, Mitzi Baum, have a daughter, Sasha, who is 3½ years old.
Education: He earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1996 and earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2004.
Practice: A partner at Schopf & Weiss, he works with domestic and international companies and business people to solve business disputes in ways that both protect their legal rights and advance their strategic interests.
His practice encompasses prelitigation counseling and litigation in a variety of substantive areas.
1. Why did you become a lawyer?
I decided to become a lawyer because after college I worked awhile as a political consultant and I worked as an aide in the Senate on Capitol Hill and I also was a lobbyist for a nonprofit.
In each of those jobs, at certain times, my colleagues and I had to defer to lawyers. Oftentimes, for no other reason than that they were lawyers who had some specific skill set that the rest of us did not have.
2. What advice do you have for new lawyers?
The first is it is really not about you; it's about your clients in whatever area you practice in. It is really about the clients and finding the best way to advance their goals and objectives in a cost-effective manner. If you do a good job, the personal accolades will follow.
The second thing is it's important to keep in mind that it's a profession and you ought to act professionally. You can do a good job, you can advocate for your clients and you can try to correct injustices but you can do all of that being civil, polite and courteous.

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