Mark Silverman, Troutman Pepper Locke, 2025 VP Communications
In a world where every headline seems to scream, and “discourse” often looks more like a food fight, it’s worth pausing to appreciate a small miracle: the way we treat each other within the TMA community.
As turnaround and restructuring professionals, we live in tough territory … insolvencies, distressed deals, hard conversations, and harder decisions. Yet somehow, amid all that, within the TMA, we’ve built a culture that runs on something surprisingly powerful: kindness, respect, and genuine collaboration.
Gratitude for Clients, Teams, and Colleagues
First, to our clients: you trust us with your most difficult moments. You let us into the boardroom or courtroom when things don’t add up and the pressure is at its peak. Thank you for that trust, for your candor, and for the opportunity to help steer through the storm rather than away from it.
To our teams: lawyers, financial advisors, receivers, brokers, bankers, trustees, and everyone else in the mix, thank you for the late nights, the creativity under pressure, and the ability to maintain a sense of humor when the Wi‑Fi goes down five minutes before an important call.
And to our friends within TMA: you are the reason this doesn’t feel like “networking” in the awkward, obligatory sense. You take calls, make meaningful and targeted connections, share war stories, and sometimes even share an enjoyable experience at an event. You remind us that this is still a people business.
Pushing Back Against the Noise
The rhetoric in the broader media and public space can be toxic. Constant outrage, suspicion, and cynicism. If you believed everything you read, you’d think collaboration is weakness and compromise is failure.
Within TMA, we quietly prove the opposite. We:
- Advocate fiercely without making it personal.
- Disagree professionally and then share a drink afterward.
- Compete in the market, yet still share knowledge, referrals, and opportunities.
It’s not flashy, and it doesn’t trend on social media, but it works.
Kindness as a Solution
Kindness and respect aren’t just “nice to have” virtues; they’re good business. Deals get done faster when people trust each other. Cases move more smoothly when we believe that everyone at the table is acting in good faith. And it is infinitely easier to navigate tense situations when we’ve invested in relationships before the crisis.
With the new year upon us, it’s worth remembering a simple truth:
It is more enjoyable and more effective to work with people you know and trust. Why not have those people be your fellow TMA members?
That’s what TMA gives us: a community where a familiar name on the other side of a matter is good news, not a cause for dread.
Continuing to Build a Fantastic Organization (On Purpose)
We are not just part of a professional association; we are continuing to build the organization we want to belong to:
- One where new members are welcomed with open arms.
- One where younger professionals are mentored and brought to the table with seasoned professionals.
- One where we celebrate each other’s wins (even when we were on the other side of the “v”).
If we keep prioritizing relationships over rhetoric, respect over noise, and problem-solving over posturing, then we won’t just have a strong organization, we’ll have a remarkable one.
Looking Ahead
As we step into the new year, let’s double down on what already sets this community apart:
- Be generous with thanks.
- Be intentional about staying connected.
- Be the person others are relieved to see on an email chain, not the one they silently brace for.
To our clients, colleagues, and friends in TMA: thank you. Working with you is not only professionally rewarding, it’s actually fun. And in this line of work, that might be the most extraordinary result of all.
