After having moved to TriBeCa, the four of us meet Marc Ackerman, general counsel at Tough Mudder, a company that has been organizing military style obstacle runs since 2009, and which has its head quarter in Brooklyn.
Years ago, my friend Sheetal from Emory Law School, then general counsel at Tough Mudder, called me and asked me whether I could provide legal assistance to the company in entering the German market. I have been their legal counsel in Germany ever since, and Tough Mudder was one of the most important clients to follow me when I went out on my own four years ago. Even though my friend has long moved on, Tough Mudder decided to keep us on board, and I am thankful for the continued trust their legal team puts in my firm and our work.
Marc welcomes us in the TMHQ, the Tough Mudder Head Quarter, as they call it, and needs to quickly finish a conference call. We await him in the warm and welcoming open office space, with a large open kitchen, a lounge area and a ping pong table, and with Mini Mudder sweatbands for our children.
Marc then gives us a tour of the premises and explains how Tough Mudder was built. You can sense the devotion to the Tough Mudder project in the stories he shares with us and in every corner of this office. We are impressed by the powerful atmosphere of this place and its people. It is actually the first time since our initial contact that I meet a member of the TM legal team in person. In these modern times of electronic communication, it is actually possible to maintain a long distance business relationship without ever seeing one another. Even though I believe it is fair to say that this remote contact has always been fruitful nonetheless, it is clear that, at least for my part, this personal meeting today has added so much more color and dimension to our cooperation that I would have not wanted to miss. Many thanks, Marc, for making this an unforgettable encounter.
