Marcus Halden
Founding Partner · Corporate & M&A
Stanford Law 1992. Twelve years at Wachtell prior to founding the firm. Chambers-ranked in corporate transactions since 2009.
Halden & Crowe was founded in 1998 by Marcus Halden and Diana Crowe — two former associates at large firms who shared a single, unfashionable view: that the best legal work is done by the lawyers who will sign the final document, not by the lawyers who delegate it.
We grew slowly and on purpose. Five attorneys in 1998. Eight by 2005. Sixteen today, across offices in Portland and Seattle. Every matter the firm accepts is staffed and led by a partner who personally reviews the work product. Associates do exceptional work here; they do it visible to the partners who hire them, not hidden behind layers of review and revenue.
We have turned down work that would have doubled the firm's revenue in a single year. We have also accepted matters that paid below our standard rate because they involved a question of law worth answering. The firm's continuity, and the unbroken record of clients who return to us with their hardest problems, is the result of those choices — not in spite of them.