Michael Fralin grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, in a Methodist minister's household and pursued law after Boston College Law School, graduating in 2002. His early legal career included roles at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Sidley Austin, followed by in-house counsel at J.P. Morgan for Midwest real estate loans, where he gained business-side transaction experience. He left corporate law in 2010 to found and operate a children's activity franchise, Kidville, learning hiring, payroll, and operational pressure before selling it after three years and returning to legal practice. He joined SomeraRoad Inc. as its first hire in 2016 and now serves as a senior attorney with over two decades leading large commercial real estate and structured finance deals.
Michael's legal career started at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, the oldest law firm in the U.S. He joined their real estate finance group after graduating from Boston College Law School in 2002. The timing was important-he entered the industry just before the real estate boom of the mid-2000s. "Cadwalader was fast-paced and full of very smart people. I had to learn quickly how to manage complex deals," he recalls.
He moved to Sidley Austin in Chicago in 2005 and then joined J.P. Morgan as in-house counsel for their Midwest real estate loan business. That role gave him something law firms often don't: a look at the business side of transactions. "I was seeing how deals were shaped from the inside. I wasn't just reviewing documents-I was helping structure them," Michael says.
But Michael's journey wasn't all law. In 2010, he made a major pivot. He stepped away from corporate life and launched a children's activity franchise called Kidville. It was a big change-and a big risk. "I had been thinking about entrepreneurship for a while. Running Kidville taught me how to hire, how to manage payroll, and how to handle pressure that's way different from law."
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