PRACTICE FOCUS
Harold "Hal" Walter is a Principal Attorney in the Business Litigation Practice Group, and also works as an intellectual property (IP) litigation attorney. Hal’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation including a wide variety of commercial and business disputes, product liability defense, toxic tort defense, labor & employment, and estates & trusts litigation.
A skillful negotiator, Hal has also resolved cases in both practical and creative ways. Clients have compared Mr. Walter to a master chess champion who sees the end-game, then plans and executes a winning legal strategy to get there. Hal represents his clients with his whole heart and full legal acumen to get the best possible outcome.
Hal has written and lectured regarding legal/medical issues as they arise in litigation or potential litigation. He chaired a national symposium of the nation's leading attorneys that focused on trial practices that win cases. He has co-authored a manual on "Trial Preparation From Start to Finish." Hal has also written several articles for national journals on electronic discovery and selection of expert witnesses.
Before joining Offit Kurman, Hal was a partner with a large downtown Baltimore law firm. Immediately following law school, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
Highlights of Hal’s legal experiences include:
- Defense verdicts in the first two cases to go to verdict in the United States alleging that ELF/EMF caused brain tumors
- The trial of numerous consolidated product liability and mass tort cases involving multiple plaintiffs and multiple defendants in which punitive damages were at issue
- The argument of hundreds of motions and participation in over a thousand depositions
- Fluency in the language of medicine, statistics, and science, honed through the presentation and cross-examination of the world's leading experts on a variety of medical, epidemiological, and scientific issues
- The trial of a variety of multimillion dollar commercial and business claims representing either plaintiffs or defendants
- Managing litigation, including acting as national or regional counsel for clients with multistate litigation, involving the hiring, supervision, and direction of local counsel and devising and implementing litigation management systems, all within a budget
- Counseling business clients, with a particular emphasis on litigation involving complex contracts in a wide variety of business contexts
RECOGNITIONS
- AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell
- Top Ten Leading Litigators, The National Law Journal
- Most Tenacious IP Litigator, Legal Elite Awards
- Super Lawyers Maryland, 2007 - 2013, 2015 - 2016
- SmartCEO Powerplayer's Award