Established 1998 · Los Angeles, California
For more than two decades, Halbrook & Vance has stood between good people and difficult outcomes. We prepare every matter as though it will be tried — because the firms that prepare for trial are the firms that win at the table.
The firm, measured
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Continuous practice in California state and federal courts since 1998.
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From first-offense defense to multi-party commercial litigation.
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Measured across post-matter client surveys from 2019 onward.
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An attorney — never an answering service — reachable after hours.
Our firm
“The courtroom rewards the lawyer who read the file twice.” — Marcus T. Halbrook, Managing Partner
Halbrook & Vance opened in a two-room office on Wilshire Boulevard in 1998 with a single conviction: that ordinary people deserve the same quality of advocacy that institutions buy without thinking. Twenty-seven attorneys later, that conviction is still the hiring standard.
We are a trial firm first. Every matter is assigned a lead attorney and a second chair on day one, is worked from a written theory of the case, and is reviewed monthly by a partner who was not involved in drafting it. Opposing counsel learns quickly that our files are ready.
To meet every client with candour about their position and relentlessness about their outcome.
Discretion, preparation, and plain English. No client should need a lawyer to understand their lawyer.
Fixed fees where they are fair, honest assessments where they are not, and a returned call within four hours.
Halbrook & Vance
What we practise
Select a practice to read how we approach it. Every area below is led by a partner who has tried cases in it — not merely advised on them.
Pre-charge intervention, felony and misdemeanour defence, DUI, white-collar investigations and appeals. We take the position that a case not investigated by the defence has only been investigated by the prosecution.
Dissolution, custody and visitation, support modification, prenuptial agreements and mediation. Handled quietly, with a bias toward settlements that hold up five years later.
Entity formation, shareholder agreements, commercial contracts, M&A diligence and outside general counsel engagements for companies that have outgrown templates but not yet built a legal department.
Motor vehicle collisions, premises liability, catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Investigated with accident reconstruction and life-care planning from the first week, not the week before mediation.
Purchase and sale, commercial leasing, title and boundary disputes, land use and entitlement, construction defect and landlord–tenant matters across Southern California.
Business torts, partnership dissolution, breach of contract, employment disputes and appellate work. We write the dispositive motion first and let it shape the discovery plan.
When it matters most
The difference between a good outcome and a catastrophic one is rarely eloquence. It is the deposition taken in month two, the expert retained before the deadline, and the partner who has stood in that courtroom before.
The people
Five lawyers, one bench. Each of them has first-chaired a trial in the discipline they lead — and each of them answers their own phone.
Trial Advocacy & Appeals
Founder of the firm and a former deputy district attorney, Marcus has tried more than 120 cases to verdict. He leads the firm's appellate practice and personally reviews every criminal file that enters the office.
First-chair trial counsel in 40+ felony matters, with a focus on pre-charge resolution.
Book a consultationCriminal Defense Attorney
Felony defence · DUI · Appeals
Outside general counsel to 30+ California companies from seed stage to exit.
Book a consultationPartner · Corporate Law Specialist
M&A · Governance · Commercial
Certified family law mediator; resolves four in five matters without a contested hearing.
Book a consultationFamily Law Attorney
Custody · Mediation · Support
Former insurance defence counsel — he knows precisely how the other side values a file.
Book a consultationSenior Attorney · Personal Injury
Catastrophic injury · Liability
Why Halbrook & Vance
Every lawyer at the firm has first-chaired a trial. We do not staff matters with associates learning on your file, and the attorney you meet is the attorney who appears.
A written theory of your case within ten days — with the risks named plainly.
5,000+ matters, 17 jury verdicts in three years, and a 98% client satisfaction rating.
Privileged from the first minute. Nothing you tell us leaves the room — engaged or not.
Plain English, fixed fees where fair, and no invoice you did not see coming.
An attorney on call around the clock, a four-hour call-back standard, and a paralegal assigned to your matter by name from day one.
In their words
They took a case two other firms had already declined. Marcus explained exactly where I was weak before he explained where I was strong — that honesty is the reason I could sleep during eleven months of litigation. The verdict came back our way.
Renata Alvarez
Camille handled our custody matter with a decency I did not expect from a lawyer. She kept my children out of a courtroom entirely and still got a parenting plan that has held for three years without a single return to court.
Priya Raghunathan
We used Adrian as outside general counsel through two funding rounds and an acquisition. He rewrote contracts our previous firm had copied from a template, and that diligence saved the deal when the buyer's counsel went looking.
Gregory Lindqvist
After the collision I was dealing with an insurer who would not return calls. Damon had an accident reconstruction expert on site inside a week. The offer went from insulting to serious in a single afternoon.
Daniel Okonkwo
No obligation · Fully privileged
Tell us what happened. In thirty minutes you will have an honest reading of your position, the realistic range of outcomes, and what it would cost to pursue them — whether or not you engage this firm.
Call directly
(213) 555-0147
Email the firm
[email protected]
All submissions are treated as confidential attorney–client communications.
