The ATL Interrogatories: 10 Questions With Jim Walden Of Walden Macht & Haran

Jim Walden of Walden Macht & Haran shares insights and experiences about the legal profession and careers in law.

Ed. note: This is the latest installment of The ATL Interrogatories, a recurring feature giving notable law firm partners an opportunity to share insights and experiences about the legal profession and careers in law, as well as about their firms and themselves.

Jim Walden is a founding partner at Walden Macht & Haran LLP. A veteran litigator, he has served clients in high-profile and complex matters throughout his private-practice career, including dozens of internal investigations for public and private companies. Immediately prior to founding the firm, Walden was a partner with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where he served as Co-Chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations practice. Prior to entering private practice, Walden served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where he successfully tried many felony cases, including complex racketeering trials, and won various commendations, including the “Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney” and the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation’s “Prosecutor of the Year.” Among his many multi-agency initiatives, Walden’s work led to the first effective assault against the Bonanno Crime Family in 20 years.

1. What is the greatest challenge to the legal industry over the next 5 years?

Finding ways to use the law to combat fundamental corruption within our government, which threatens our preeminence in the world. Our democracy and our legal system are undermined whenever public servants indulge in a self-serving quest for power. And this is not an abstract issue: we are reading about corruption and abuses of power every day. Corruption affects what conduct is regulated and criminalized; how enforcement action is pursued or abandoned; whether public officials are held accountable; and whether public resources are justly and efficiently used. Lawyers inside and outside of government have to press the government to follow the rules. That is what a constitutional government requires.

2. What has been the biggest positive change to the legal profession since the start of your career?

The broader inclusion within the profession of people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The law will become a more effective mechanism for attacking injustice and inequality as the profession becomes even more inclusive, and less controlled by people within the power elite (but see the cautionary note in #5 below).

3. What has been the biggest negative change to the legal profession since the start of your career?

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Taking sentencing discretion away from judges, either through mandatory-minimum sentences or through the Sentencing Guidelines. Unfair discrepancies in sentencing still exist, only now they are more often attributable to prosecutorial rather than judicial discretion. More often than not, targets of a government investigation feel they need to take a deal to avoid a draconian sentence. Because so many cases are “resolved” with a plea, criminal trials no longer operate to check the government’s power over the individual. And a scheme in which the Guidelines are technically advisory but treated, in practice, as presumptively reasonable has not undone the damage. History will view both regimes as failed experiments in criminal justice.

4. What is the greatest satisfaction of practicing law?

Winning a difficult case on behalf of a worthy client. When you can help level the playing field, and guide the legal system toward the right outcome, it makes the struggle well worth it.

5. What is the greatest frustration of practicing law?

We need lawyers to tackle our Nation’s most intractable problems. When our noble profession succumbs to greed, and per-partner profits become the driving force for our “industry,” we lose what makes practicing law special and different from other vocations.

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6. What is your firm’s greatest strength?

Our lawyers — for their integrity, creativity, resourcefulness, agility, and unwavering commitment to the best interests of our clients.

7. What is the single most important personal characteristic for a successful lawyer in your field?

Integrity. A lawyer without it is merely a salesperson hawking a defective product.

8. What is your favorite legally themed film or television show?

“The Outlaw Josey Wales,” with Clint Eastwood and Chief Dan George. A classic allegory concerning abuse of official power and someone with the will to stop it.

9. What is your favorite legally themed book (fiction or non-fiction)?

Nonfiction: “The 9/11 Commission Report.” It is the single-most important cautionary tale of our age, and should be required reading.

Fiction: “The Ox-Bow Incident,” by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.

10. What would you have been if you weren’t a lawyer?

My first and only career ambition was to be a lawyer. It is in my DNA to hunt down an explanation for a problem and then to fight for a logical, fair solution. I have the utmost respect for historians and detectives, and I suppose my work as a lawyer combines the two endeavors to a large extent. But, I cannot imagine a calling other than the law.