Member Spotlight: Truax Law Group Ltd.
Name
Phil Truax
Job Title
Founder
Company Name
What does your company do?
Elite legal and advisory services for contractors, subcontractors, suppliers or others in the construction industry.
What is your favorite part of your job and why?
Helping contractors navigate through, and translate, difficult legal issues and related problems they encounter on projects, so they understand them and solve them - and help getting them paid. We like being the hero!
What has been the key to your company's success?
Our core values: Trust, Reliability, Clarity (of Communication), Tenacity and Strategy
We go out of our way to understand the contractor's objectives, make sure they understand the issues and process before them, and try to find the most reasonable and cost-effective way to pursue those objectives.
What important changes/initiatives are you working on right now?
(1) We're growing fairly rapidly, so building systems to continue living by our core values as the team grows; (2) communicating to the industry that we offer an economical alternative to the other great construction law groups in Northeast Ohio; (3) offering value to the industry in the form of educational content - there's an awful lot that contractors and builders don't know and should, and we want to be part of the solution.
How does your company find and retain talent?
Good question... finding talent in the legal industry is very difficult, but presenting them with the mission, vision and core values of the law firm is critical to communicating what we are about and what it is like practicing law and advising contractors with us; then treating everyone with respect and empowering them to approach their position according to their personal strengths and goals; and having some fun.
What advice would you give to somebody just starting their career in construction?
Remember what you're doing - you're building up Northeast Ohio, you're saving a building, you're making the road safer. And your team needs you to accomplish that goal. Take pride in that first. Then, consider how the building is built, the structure is remodeled, the road is constructed - careful planning, prioritization, safety, plans and specifications, then starting at the bottom with the foundation, performing the work understanding how critical that is, etc. Then consider how that process can be applied to what you're doing, and your company needs to accomplish. Everything has and needs a careful process.
What CEA initiatives have you been involved with?
Educational offerings, including seminars; golf outing; advising internally on developments in key construction law topics.