Robert D. Rachlin

Robert Rachlin, the senior director of the firm, has more than forty years' experience in a broad spectrum of civil litigation on behalf of clients that include an international building materials company, a major manufacturer of farm equipment, a worldwide manufacturer of electronics, a large manufacturer of office supplies and a regional public utility. He has managed and tried many cases involving technical and scientific evidence, such as birth control litigation for a major pharmaceutical company, flammable fabric litigation, cases involving concepts of mechanical engineering and defective roofing cases.

Mr. Rachlin has tried cases before both state and federal courts and has significant appellate experience in the United States Courts of Appeals for the First and Second Circuits and the District of Columbia Circuit. An experienced mediator, Mr. Rachlin has been called on by courts and attorneys to assist in the amicable resolutions of disputes. He has participated in mediation demonstrations for Lex Mundi in Geneva and Vancouver, and has attended the Mediation Workshop presented by the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers.

He has been actively involved, largely at his own expense, in pro bono representation of poor criminal defendants in southeastern Missouri and Arkansas. He served as State's Attorney of Caledonia County, Vermont from 1961 to 1964.

Among major litigation cases, he represented the State of Vermont in achieving one of the largest state court verdicts in Vermont history and has also achieved, in a trade secret misappropriation suit, the largest federal award in Vermont history. He successfully represented the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in establishing U.S. license primacy over licenses granted by the International Olympic Committee, considered by the USOC to be a major stride in the protection of its control over Olympic-related designations.

Mr. Rachlin has negotiated a research and development contract with a major conglomerate in the United Kingdom, a license for a television series in Japan, lease matters connected with an international student exchange program in France and has consulted in connection with a license for marketing of artistic figurines in Scotland.

Mr. Rachlin is an elected member of the American Law Institute, an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and an elected fellow of the International Society of Barristers. He serves on the board of trustees of Vermont Law School (VLS) and has been appointed "Distinguished Lecturer" at VLS, where he is currently teaching three-credit courses in professional responsibility and remedies. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the University of Vermont, Department of German and Russian. He has served on the Vermont Board of Bar Examiners and the Vermont Professional Conduct Board.

Mr. Rachlin has been continuously listed in Best Lawyers in America since the work was first published. He is designated in the 2005 Chambers USA as the only "Senior Statesman" in Vermont litigation, a special category for active litigators, placed above Chambers' "first tier" of litigators. He was recently ranked among the top five percent of attorneys in Vermont by Super Lawyers® magazine. The listed attorneys were identified by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics® magazine. Mr. Rachlin also receives Martindale-Hubbell's AV® Preeminent™ Peer Rating, the highest rating attainable.

Mr. Rachlin currently serves as chair of the advisory board of the Center for Holocaust Studies of the University of Vermont in Burlington. He also serves on the board of directors of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra. Active both in Burlington, Vermont-based and statewide community organizations, Mr. Rachlin has served on the board of directors of the Family Connection Center for Visitation, Inc., of Spectrum Youth and Family Services, Inc. and of Everybody Wins! Vermont, a school-based literacy program.

Mr. Rachlin is a concert pianist, a multi-engine rated pilot and a certified flight instructor.

Mr. Rachlin has lectured to bar groups and associations nationwide and internationally on trial advocacy and mediation and has authored a lead article in the Albany Law Review on education labor law. In April, 2006, he delivered the seventeenth annual Harry H. Kahn Memorial Lecture at the University of Vermont on "Carl Schmitt and the Jurisprudence of Exclusion."  He is scheduled to present his paper, "What was Jewish about the 'Jewish Influence' on German Law as Viewed by Nazi Legal Theorists?" at the 11th Lessons and Legacies Conference, a widely recognized conference of Holocaust scholars, in Boca Raton, Fla., in November, 2010.

He has published scholarly articles and book chapters in two publications on the Holocaust, and has also published articles on technology and the law, book reviews, and articles on aviation.

A sampling of articles published by Mr. Rachlin includes:

Review: Carl Schmidt, Constitutional Theory, H-German (online), October 2009

“From Weimar to Auschwitz: Carl Schmitt and the Jurisprudence of Exclusion,” In Wolfgang Mieder and David Scrase, eds., Reactions to the Third Reich: Then and Now (Burlington, Vermont: The [University of Vermont] Center for Holocaust Studies), 23-50, 2009.

Review: Schmitt, Carl, The Concept of the Political, H-German, H-Net Reviews, October 2007.

Seven Habits of Effective Lawyers, Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, Summer 2007.

Review: Orgel, Paul, piano. Music from the Holocaust (CD). Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies, 10:2, Spring 2006.

Review: Majer, Diemut. "Non-Germans” under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe, with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies, Fall 2004.

[Chapter] “Felix Kersten: Himmler’s Doctor and the Eleventh-Hour Rescue Operation.” In David Scrase, Wolfgang Mieder, and Katherine Quimby Johnson, eds. Making a Difference: Rescue and Assistance During the Holocaust. Essays in Honor of Marion Pritchard. University of Vermont Center for Holocaust Studies, 2004.

Growing Old With Judge Posner, Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2, Summer 2003.

Review: Naor, Bezalel. Kabbalah and the Holocaust. Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies, 7:2. Spring, 2003.

The Perils of E-mail, Interface Now, December 21, 2001. Reprinted as “Examining the Perils of E-mail,” Northern New England Technology Newspaper, January 2002.

Managing Litigation Risk and Cost, Downs Rachlin Martin, 2002.

Review: Dershowitz, Alan M. The Genesis of Justice. The Vermont Bar Journal. December, 2001.

[Chapter] “Finland’s Jews and the Final Solution.” In Wolfgang Mieder and David Scrase, eds. Reflections on the Holocaust: Festschrift in Honor of Raul Hilberg, University of Vermont Center for Holocaust Studies, 2001.

“How were they Saved? Finland, the Second World War, and the Jews.” Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies, 3:2, Spring 1999.

Review: Hilberg, Raul. The Politics of Memory. Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies, 2:1, Fall 1997.

French, German, Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew