Heather CM Rogers

Managing Partner, Davidson Fink LLP

Years in current role: 4

What has been your biggest success over the past year?

My success is our success as a firm. Our biggest success over the past year is the growth and rebuilding of the firm after the pandemic which included a move of the firm from a spot we had been in for over 50 years. This fresh start has been amazing on many levels and has breathed new life into our well-established, long-standing firm. The growth of clients and staff has been rewarding and our breadth and depth of talent and services has been awesome to experience.

What are your expectations for the next 6-12 months?

I expect that we will continue to add some great talent to the firm as well as add some complementary areas of practice so that we may better serve our clients.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in real estate law?

My advice would be to learn all pieces of the “real estate pie” so that your practice will always be able to weather the economic fluctuations. When buy/sells are booming, default is slower; when interest rates rise, the lending market slows but default is more active, etc. If you learn the real estate process from lending/origination, buy/sell, leasing and default then you will always have work to do and you will be a valuable asset to your clients and employers. When you focus on one specific area only, you will, at some point in the economic cycle, find yourself without work to do or needed skills to market.

If you could practice one area of law that you haven’t practiced in your career, what would it be and why?

I think I would have practiced some kind of international business law. My educational background is in business and languages and I always wanted to live overseas and work for a company on an international level, with as much travel as possible!

What do you enjoy most about practicing law in the Rochester area?

I’ve said this before but it is still true — the camaraderie of the practitioners. I practice in every county in the state and there is nothing like the kind and respectful attorneys that we have in the Rochester area. In most cases I can pick up the phone and ask for assistance or pick someone’s brain who previously had been my “adversary.” Some of my closest legal friends I have met through deals in which we were on opposite sides. I feel that the zealous representation of a client doesn’t have to translate into poor behavior between attorneys and I think we do a pretty good job of remembering that here.