Eleanor R. Halloway

Overview

Eleanor Halloway has spent thirty-one years litigating disputes between people who once trusted each other: shareholders in a family company, partners in a professional practice, beneficiaries and the trustee who was supposed to protect them. She has tried twenty-two cases to verdict and argued eleven appeals.

Her practice is built on an unfashionable premise — that the best litigator is the one who tells you early, and in writing, what a case is actually worth. Clients who came to her intending to sue have left the first meeting with a negotiation strategy instead. Those who did go to trial did so knowing the number, the timetable and the risk before a complaint was filed.

She became managing partner in 2016 and has since led the firm through the opening of its Hartford office and the transition of two founding partners into retirement. She continues to carry a full caseload, on the view that a firm should be run by someone who still has to answer to a judge.

Approach

Eleanor prepares cases backwards, from the closing argument to the first document request. That discipline shapes what gets litigated and what gets settled: opponents tend to reassess once it becomes clear that the file is already trial-ready.

She is regularly appointed as a mediator in commercial disputes, and speaks on trial practice for the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education programme.

Beyond the practice

Eleanor chairs the firm’s pro bono committee, which places every attorney in at least one uncompensated matter a year, and sits on the board of a Boston legal aid organisation. She rows on the Charles most mornings, badly and with enthusiasm.