Counsel for the decisions that define a company.

Hartwell & Crane was founded in 1998 by two litigators who had grown tired of the leverage model — the pitch led by a name partner, the work handed down to associates a client never met. They started a firm on a different premise: that in the moments that actually matter to a business, you want experience on the file, not around it. Nearly three decades later, that premise still governs everything we do.

We practice in four areas — corporate and M&A, litigation and disputes, intellectual property, and real estate — chosen because they reinforce one another. The deal lawyer who structures your acquisition understands how the dispute lawyer will litigate its indemnities; the IP counsel protecting your inventions knows how they will be valued in a sale. Under one roof, that knowledge compounds into advice you cannot get from specialists working in isolation.

Being boutique is a choice, not a limitation. It means we take fewer matters and give each one more of the people you actually want on it. It means candid advice — we will tell you when to fight and, just as often, when a fight is not worth winning. And it means a relationship that outlasts any single engagement. Most of our work comes from clients we have advised for a decade or more, and from the lawyers who send them to us.