Editor’s Note
Peter Hecht, Founding Partner & Executive Vice President of Sales, Magna Legal Services
Happy 19th anniversary, Magna Legal Services!!!
On February 2, 2007, Bob Ackerman, Mark Calzaretta, and I were shown the proverbial door by our previous employer. We went from terminated employees to founders in two weeks. Gone were the steady pay checks and all the other corporate bells and whistles. We lived on credit cards and our own heavy lifting for a long time. Longer than we expected. By the way, I framed and have kept my termination letter on my office wall since our start. Why? Because that was the best career move in my life. A few years later we hired the guys that fired us. What came next was something I would have never dreamt possible… becoming a founding partner of the greatest end-to-end litigation support company in the whole wide world of legal services! I know I am biased, but I believe it in my bones.
Before I get ahead of myself, here’s a fun fact for all you newer Magna fans… in addition to the three of us (Me, Bob, and Mark), there were two other co-founders, Lenny Levine and Ron Kurzman (they moved on during the earlier years of our development). And a few years later, Jon Ackerman would join us as the Founder of our Record Retrieval division. Together, we built something that others in the industry have been trying to replicate and have yet to crack our code.
One thing is certain from the start! We had a secret weapon, and his name was Bob Ackerman. He led us all the way from formation to our first round of PE investment. He is a legend in the industry and if you knew him, you also knew he had many superpowers. As a matter of fact, there were so many that I would never be able to do them justice on this page. So, I will just mention a couple. First and foremost was his ability to build teams. Another was leading those teams. Bob had the gift of seeing talent in others (even when they couldn’t see it themselves) and then bringing everyone together as a team. The other superpower was his Jedi-like ability to lead without ever doing or saying anything to make you feel like you were being “LED”! It was one of the coolest businessy things I experienced, and I had a front row seat to it. They were amazing times!
The future looks incredibly bright for Magna. We have increased our talent, tapped millions of dollars for technological development, and grown to over 1,000 employees while holding on to many of the original (founding) employees. Lastly, as I have said before and I’m sure I will say again, “Bob Ackerman was my father-in-law, friend, mentor and leader.” I am a better person for knowing him and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him. All of this would never have come to be without him. We miss you, Bob, and Thank You!
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Peter Hecht
Founding Partner & Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Magna Legal Services