By: Matts Batryn
While other words not fit for publication may be better suited describing 2020, it suffices to say that 2020 was an unpleasant year. Everyday life came with unprecedented modifications, some easier to implement and accept than others. While personal day-to-day life changed for many, 2020 also changed the landscape for businesses across America; many faced a heightened “sink-or-swim” environment. Businesses struggled not only to maintain revenue during these difficult economic times but had difficulty integrating their business online for a new, predominately at-home population.
However, some businesses were more than ready to meet the challenges of this new and confusing economic environment. Madison Settlement Services has met the challenges of 2020 head-on and is now poised to enter 2021 stronger than ever.
defining “settlement services”
I was fortunate enough to sit down with David Breschi, the founder, President & CEO of Madison Settlement Services, and an alumnus of our own Dickinson Law. Of course, by “sit down,” I mean a video call from 3,000 miles away. David practiced law for over 13 years before founding 
Madison Settlement Services, a successful real estate title insurance business that is headquartered in central Pennsylvania. The company has grown to include 12 local offices, 90 employees, and over 13,000 combined real estate closings in 2020 alone. David currently resides in Carlisle, Pennsylvania just a stone’s throw from the law school.
David is not shy about the everyday challenges that 2020 has brought, and this is reflected in the successes of Madison Settlement Services.
Much like my initial self, you may be wondering: What are settlement services? This is a fair question to be sure, as I have now learned that the world of “settlement services” is a broad one with many avenues. For David and his ever-expanding team, the focus is on residential & commercial real estate purchases, as well as refinancing and escrow services. The experts at Madison Settlement Services help with title examination, legal review, title insurance, closing cost estimations, and more.
When considering the ramifications of COVID-19 and the real estate market, it is easy to assume that all businesses associated with real estate would be negatively impacted. However, the changing world in 2020 has led to unprecedented trends in both residential and commercial property.
the covid exodus
More and more people are working from home and no longer need to relocate to NYC or DC for their job. They can stay comfortably in surrounding areas such as Pennsylvania; and with record low-interest rates, more people are taking advantage. This trend of an almost mass exodus from large urban areas is a nice dichotomy from the post-war push toward city centers, and it is undoubtedly a tendency that property owners will continue long after the new COVID workforce changes have been implemented.
“We’ve increased our market share and are poised to have our most successful year on record,” says David.
Nevertheless, any success in the realm of real estate can be fleeting, especially during turbulent economic downturns. But Madison Settlement Services has been ahead of the curve in terms of bringing its entire workforce remote and online. “We had everyone set up and working remote within four business days,” beamed David. “I had days where I was personally driving from employee’s house to employee’s house delivering printers and scanners, making sure everyone had the tools to succeed, especially when people were forced to remain at home.”
want success? go the extra mile & create a “culture of caring”
It’s not often you see a CEO moonlighting as a courier and delivering supplies to his employee’s homes, but it’s that type of personal touch that goes a long way in the paperwork-heavy world of real estate settlements. As David explains, this notion of going the extra mile for everyone involved is the overall culture of the company and has been a huge catalyst in recent successes. Personalized aspects of business are all but a distant memory of a COVID-free past decade, and David wants to ensure that will never happen at Madison Settlement Services.
“We have a culture, and the culture is caring. It doesn’t matter if you’re a broker we deal with once a month or if you’re our largest client. We have a policy to answer any calls or emails within 5 to 15 minutes. Having someone to actually talk to that isn’t a voice recording is huge in building trust in today’s climate.”
Clients aside, David also instills the culture of caring into each business decision and employee relationship. He has ended what seems like fortuitous business partnerships or expansions because it becomes evident that the other party does not fit into the culture of caring within Madison Settlement Services.
your legal path may not be “legal”
When one thinks of possible law career paths, Settlement Services is far from the top 100 that normally come to mind. David started his career with similar thinking, as he changed between conventional legal jobs in criminal law and in a law firm.
“You just have to GET IN’’ laughs David.“How can you know if you like or don’t like something without trying it? I wanted to see if these were the careers for me, and ultimately they were not.”
It’s a simple concept, but it is one that resonates with me and I’m sure most other law students. Often those new in the field of law are bombarded with career choices and paths that they have little to no experience with. The analysis paralysis is real, and the fear of choosing the wrong career in law holds many fledgling law students back from broadening their career horizons.
“I wasn’t happy with the work I was doing and after a decade of practicing law I didn’t know where I wanted to go next.”
This “next” arrived quickly when one of David’s associates offered him the opportunity to enter the settlement service industry. David wasted no time securing his foundation of clients and starting Madison Settlement Services. True to his own mantra, David “just got in” and kept going. In real entrepreneurial fashion, David made zero profits for the first four years until the ball really got rolling in year five. Madison Settlement Services is now thriving with well over a dozen regional and national offices across most of the United States. But how does one go from a pure legal background to a business career focused on building a successful business that has now spanned more than 17 years?
the lessons of law in a career in business
“I started with the mindset that you cannot be afraid to fail,” says David. “I saw my goal of wanting to make this my career and I knew what needed to be done. I still wake up every day excited to build on what I’ve started.” While these elements of wanting it and “entrepreneurial spirit” cannot be measured objectively, David also chalks up his success to his law school education and legal background. He says his experience doing litigation has probably the most influence on the way he approaches business.
“Litigation is all about anticipating and figuring out what the other side needs or wants and what they are likely to do. I do the same by always seeing what the needs of my clients are or what other settlement companies are doing… I learned to think this way through my experiences fighting in litigation.”
Secondly, and I’m not just saying this because I know my Legal Writing professor will read this, David credits the skills he learned in Legal Writing class, as they helped him establish his writing style for business and for writing clearly and concisely; a skill I’m hopefully not too dense to learn.
Seeing David’s unconventional career path with a JD is something I’m grateful for. It’s reassuring for me, and I assume for most other 1Ls, that your first job doesn’t define who you are or that your career path is always linear. The choices upon graduation are often endless, even if it does not seem that way initially. All you have to do is take a chance and “just get in” to something you might enjoy.
Matts Batryn, at the time of this post, is a first-year student at Penn State Dickinson Law. He is from Vancouver, Canada and his future endeavors are set on litigation and trial law.
Awesome! I worked for David for five years and he was a wonderful leader, encourager, and champion for the office where I worked. Well deserved honor, David!