Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization

A decade ago, Alan Garten was an associate at Bryan Cave working on real estate litigation. Now it's not uncommon for his legal activities to be discussed by millions of people around the world.

Garten is general counsel (GC) of the Trump Organization, which owns and operates Donald Trump's many hotels and other ventures. While Garten deals with the usual stuff of being a GC – reviewing real estate contracts, managing outside counsel – his job is always evolving. Just recently, he was quoted in the press defending Trump against rape allegations (Garten calls the civil lawsuit a "hoax"). And, unlike many GCs, he has appeared in court on behalf of his employer's wife and three adult children. "We're not a publicly traded company. At the end of the day, I work for the Trump family," he says. "That's how I view my job. Whether it's protecting their business interests or protecting their personal interests. I am here to assist them and represent them in any way they need."

A fast rise to the top

Garten says he's followed and admired Trump's career since childhood. He grew up on Long Island, New York and says he was exposed to real estate at a young age, as his father worked for an electrical contractor who was involved in the development of major office towers in Manhattan.

Garten's 10 years in private practice focused on real estate, so he was well aware of the Trump Organization long before Trump's reality TV show The Apprentice debuted in 2004.

In 2006, Garten was presented with the opportunity to work for an undisclosed company, which he would soon learn was the Trump Organization. In the final stage of his interview process, Garten was introduced to Trump. "He asked to meet with me. I was shocked," he says.

It turns out it isn't all that unusual for Trump to meet with candidates before they receive a job offer. Jill Martin, an assistant GC who reports to Garten, was hired by Trump directly in Los Angeles in 2010.

Garten admits he was "definitely nervous" during the interview process. Now, 10 years later, he couldn't appear more comfortable in his job and his place within the Trump team. He met his wife Alexis Robinson, a former lawyer for the organisation who is now in private practice, and the two married in July at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In the past decade, Garten says he's become one of Trump's go-to colleagues, which is made convenient by the fact that their offices on the 26th floor in Trump Tower are situated only 25 feet away from one another.

Even still, Garten says he makes a conscious effort to make his communications with Trump "brief and to the point", because he knows Trump "has a million things on his plate".

Man for the job

When Garten joined the company in 2006, he worked mostly on real estate matters. He later switched gears to spearhead the company's litigation for several years.

He has climbed from the role of assistant GC to the top spot, a title which he has held since 2013. Jason Greenblatt is the chief legal officer and the two informally divide responsibilities of high importance for the department of nine lawyers, most of whom are based in New York.

Garten declined to comment on when he discovered that Trump was pursuing a career in politics, but says Trump had enough foresight to decide to file a trademark application for 'Make America Great Again' in 2012, following Mitt Romney's loss in the presidential race.

Garten called on outside counsel to file the application, which he says was granted without opposition – one of the earliest indicators Trump would be running for office.

As Trump's political pursuits grew and as he moved closer to clinching the Republican nomination for president, Garten's role, too, began to shift. "In the typical situation, the politician is running on his political achievements. In the case of Mr Trump, he doesn't have that political background so he's running on his achievements as a businessperson, as a public figure," Garten says. "As a lawyer, it is my job to protect and defend that history, those business accomplishments."

And because the campaign cannot accept or spend dollars coming directly from the corporation, several expenses with crossover must be paid from the appropriate funding sources, which are now separate. In February, Garten was attacked by Jeb Bush's Super PAC and others, which took issue with him making legal threats to Trump's political opponents while not being compensated by the campaign. Garten, though, says he volunteered to become a liaison for the campaign to advise on legal matters and began receiving a salary from the campaign, accordingly. A Politico analysis estimates that the campaign has now distributed $8.2m to his businesses – $330,000 of which was designated to corporate staffers.

Controversial and 'demanding' boss

Garten manages a busy litigation docket. USA Today recently reported that, going into this election, Trump is facing at least 75 pending lawsuits. (Garten told the news outlet that only about 30 of those are "significant". The others, he says, are frivolous).

Among the many lawsuits is a pending fraud case against Trump University, which Garten oversees along with Martin (Trump's external counsel in the case is prominent Los Angeles litigator Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers). Former students say they were bilked out of thousands of dollars in tuition costs. "When you get right down to it, those individuals who participated in Trump University received a valuable education in real estate and gave the programme overwhelming positive reviews," Garten says.

Trump has also found himself in a battle with The New York Times over multiple articles that Trump's lawyers want retracted, including a story explaining how Trump may have avoided paying federal income tax and a piece that quoted women who say Trump touched them inappropriately.

I've never heard of him doing anything even remotely inappropriate to female employees in the company in the last six years

When Trump threatened a libel suit over the assault allegations, New York Times assistant GC David McCraw quickly responded in a letter that went viral. McCraw defended the paper's right to print the story, noting that the purpose of a libel suit is to protect one's reputation. "Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself," McCraw wrote.

"If Mr Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who dare to criticise him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight."

Garten defended Trump's character, saying his boss treats men and women the same, with no bias. "He's a demanding boss," Garten says, but, "he treats his employees equally." Martin backed those claims, saying: "I've never heard of him doing anything even remotely inappropriate to female employees in the company in the last six years."

Martin adds that much of what the media has reported about Trump along the campaign trail has been out of context. "I don't have any problems with anything he's said… I pay attention to what he actually says. That's the difference."

Garten says that anyone who supports a presidential candidate – Trump, Hillary Clinton or otherwise – is not likely to agree with every single point that person makes. "You can support a candidate, and there are some things you agree with or don't agree with," he says. "I feel like Mr Trump is the candidate most capable of leading the country. That doesn't necessarily mean I agree with everything."

Post-election night

Garten says the outcome of the election will not fundamentally change his job. "Unless I'm told otherwise, if he's elected on Tuesday, I'll show up on Wednesday and do the same job I've been doing the last 10 years," he says. "There's still a company to run."

Should Trump be named the next president, Garten says there is "absolutely" a plan in place to disassociate Trump from the company's business dealings in order to avoid potential conflicts of interests. Garten would not disclose the details but he says Trump's three eldest children will assume responsibilities and oversee the company. "The reality is that Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric have been working at this company… for longer than I have, so it's not like there needs to be a formal transition," he says. "There's no facade here, they are deeply involved in every aspect."

All of Trump's corporate employees have been invited to attend what Garten referred to as a "victory party" that will take place the night of the election, if that is any indication of what his expectations are for Tuesday.

Win or lose, "this has been an experience of a lifetime", Garten says. "Whether you agree or disagree with [Trump's] policy, there is no doubt this is a monumental election."