Fall 2008 • Issue 30, page 13

Profile: Nancy Hotchkiss

By Rense, Kirk*

(Nancy Hotchkiss has been a mainstay of the California Receiver’s Forum from her Sacramento-based real estate law practice. Ms. Hotchkiss provides insight into her background and philosophies in this personal account, in her own words. Ed.)

Some attorneys knew they wanted to go into the practice of law from the time they were young. I wasn’t one of them. The youngest of three daughters of a three-generation cattle ranching family in the high desert of eastern Oregon, I learned early on the importance of hard work and the value of a good reputation, honesty in everything, and entrepreneurial thinking.

My parents instilled in my sisters and me the concept that we could – and indeed sometimes, must – do anything a man could do, albeit perhaps in a different manner. Each of we girls headed off to college (which was a requirement, but one to which we each looked forward, my father noting that college was “the one time where you’ll have the most freedom with the least responsibility of any time of your life”).

We were told by our father that we could major in any field of study we wanted so long as we could support ourselves when we graduated. Underwater basket weaving was not an option. One of my sisters became a CPA; another has a master’s degree in agricultural economics and now runs the ranch. I pushed the envelope the opposite direction, enrolling in the home economics program, intent upon becoming a fashion designer. Those who know me will laugh at that notion, given how little I care about fashion now.

The spring quarter of my senior year, I did something I should have done the fall quarter of my freshman year and checked into the salaries for graduates in my major. Discovering, much to my chagrin, that I’d be earning a whopping $10,000 a year (in 1979), and would have to work in retail for ten years and live in either San Francisco, New York, or Los Angeles to pursue fashion design, I asked herself, “What else can I do with a four-year college degree?”

My then boyfriend (future husband, for a time) was taking the LSAT exams that weekend in order to apply to law school, and he suggested that I take them, too, to keep him company. I agreed, took them as a “walk-on” (it’s a whole lot less stressful that way!), did well, and the rest is history.

I pondered my law school options and selected McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento in order to see what California was all about. I’m sure I was part of McGeorge’s ‘diversity’ program that year! Not surprisingly, I never did meet any other home ec majors during my three years of law school, which just goes to show that you don’t need to be a political science major to be a good attorney. You just need to know how to think critically and be a whiz at verbal and written persuasion.

I clerked for what was then the Law Offices of Charles W. Trainor during law school. Mr. Trainor was a real estate attorney in Sacramento, and as law school progressed, I honed my ambition more carefully and decided to stay in the real estate field. I didn’t want to work for the government, so that ruled out being a prosecutor, I didn’t believe strongly enough in crooks’ rights to enthusiastically do criminal defense work, and I gagged at the thought of doing personal injury or family law. That left real estate, business, and tax, and the more I learned about tax law, the more I gravitated to real estate.

I became an associate with Mr. Trainor upon graduating, where I have remained for the last 28 years. The firm has undergone several name changes, and is currently known as Trainor Fairbrook, employing 17 attorneys, all of whom specialize in some aspect of commercial real estate law.

My work is focused on litigation for lenders and landlords, and I have long been involved in foreclosures, receiverships, and creditor representation in the bankruptcy proceedings of my clients’ borrowers and tenants. My agricultural background has served me well in that regard, enabling me to aggressively enforce my clients’ contractual rights against those who would seek to avoid them.

On the ranch, we received income once a year when the calves were sold, and I watched my parents figure out how to budget and live on that income for the coming year, including saving a decent chunk of it for the inevitable years when cattle prices would be down. Agriculture is a risky business, not unlike real estate development, and it’s a wise person who plans for the down cycles.

I’ve been recognized as a Super Lawyer by Northern California Super Lawyers magazine for the past three years and have held a top AV rating by Martindale Hubbell since the late 1980’s. Perhaps illustrative of my advocacy skill, one former opponent whined to my law partner after losing a million dollar case to my client that “Trying to get a deal out of Nancy Hotchkiss is like trying to French kiss a barracuda!” My partner promptly had the statement engraved on a plaque and proudly presented it to me.

On the personal front, I am the mother of three teenage daughters: Mackenzie, 19 and a sophomore at UCLA, Madeline, 17, and Katie, 15, both students at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento.

In addition to my professional endeavors and raising my daughters, I invest my time at my church, Fremont Presbyterian in Sacramento, I entertain friends, and am an avid pinochle player and gardener.

I’m an impatient gardener. I’ve drawn on a lesson learned on my days on the ranch, that a cow that didn’t produce a calf each year got sold. If something doesn’t grow, it gets yanked out and replaced. I find gardening to be very therapeutic. I name my weeds. A particularly noxious one might be given the name of a difficult opposing counsel I’m dealing with on a case. Then I pull it out by its roots! Ahhh…this is a great stress reliever.