Matthew A. Haltzman - Fort Collins, CO

Matthew A. Haltzman, the founder of Haltzman Law Firm, P.C. concentrates in criminal law, personal injury law, and civil rights. In all three practice areas, he has extensive experience and has achieved notable successes. Matthew has been selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star consecutively for the last five years. Matthew’s legal commentary and representative cases have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, The Denver Post, and NBC News. Matthew formerly served as the President of the Larimer County Bar Association (YLD) and is the founding member and Chairman of the Larimer County Bar Association Criminal Justice Section. In 2023 Matthew was confirmed by the Colorado Supreme Court as a board member on the Legal Regulation Committee (LRC) which acts as the gatekeeper for all attorney disciplinary proceedings.

Matthew spent the early years of his career working in government, including the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office. Matthew worked for the United States Attorney’s Office, Capital Crimes Unit, in the District of Puerto Rico, where he assisted the United States government in the prosecution of violent felons and offenders. Matthew also served as a SLIP prosecuting attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Wyoming. As a SLIP prosecuting attorney Matthew obtained a “Confidential” level national security clearance and practiced federal criminal prosecution in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Prior to working for the United States Attorney’s Office Matthew served as a federal judicial law extern to the Honorable Judge Richard L. Bourgeois, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Since being admitted to the Colorado Bar, Matthew has successfully defended thousands of clients in complex criminal cases prosecuted by the State of Colorado in all stages of litigation, through trial. Matthew has been nationally recognized for his innovative and perceptive strategies in criminal defense and relishes the opportunity to take on what other lawyers may consider an "impossible" case.

Matthew also dedicates a considerable amount of his practice litigating on behalf of severely injured victims involved in personal injury, wrongful death, and automobile cases in Colorado and in the Western United States. Through his civil litigation work Matthew was inducted into the Million Dollar Advocates Forum; an organization recognizing attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in which less than 1% of attorneys nationwide are eligible for membership.

Prior to founding Haltzman Law Firm, P.C. Matthew practiced federal and multi-jurisdiction civil litigation with a national law firm in Cheyenne, Wyoming and spent four years after that as a senior trial attorney for an established boutique litigation firm in Fort Collins.

Matthew earned his Juris Doctor and Graduate Degree in Comparative Law, cum laude, from Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. While in law school, Matthew was awarded the Chancellor's Scholar Award and selected for the Chancellor's Honor Roll. In his third year of law school Matthew served as the Research Assistant to Vice Chancellor Raymond Diamond. While in law school Matthew was elected as the Vice President of Trial Advocacy External Affairs and was a back-to-back recipient of the Ira S. Flory Top Oral Advocate award for trial advocacy. Matthew also competed nationally at the George Mason (Costello) Trial Advocacy Competition in Washington D.C. where he placed first and fourth respectively, as a member of one of the top criminal defense teams in the country.

Prior to law school, Matthew earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Louisiana State University and was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi his junior year.