Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan
The Honorable Hugh Hallman
About Consul Hallman
Hugh Hallman is an attorney, economist, educator, and civic activist.
As an attorney, Mr. Hallman has practiced in a wide variety of practice areas, and has written four legal texts, including How to Do Business in Sonora, its companion book, Como Hacer Negocios en Arizona, How to Do Business in Kazakhstan, and its companion book, Как делать бизнес в США. Mr. Hallman has significant concentration in domestic and international finance and taxation, including straight lending transactions, preferred securities, public and private placements of equity securities, and operations and tax-planning advice and strategies to corporations and businesses in major acquisitions, mergers, and reorganizations. He has represented organizations ranging from small family businesses and start-up enterprises to large, established and publicly traded institutions that have names well known and regarded world-wide. Mr. Hallman has assisted in valuing businesses and related legal claims and structured settlements among disputants, including in major intellectual property, anti-trust and commercial disputes. In the breadth of his career, Mr. Hallman has represented parties in modest matters as well as in transactions that have exceeded 2.5 billion dollars and litigated disputes that have exceeded 5 billion dollars.
In education, Mr. Hallman has taught at the University level in political science, economics, finance, and international affairs. Among other items, Mr. Hallman is a founder of a University in Kazakhstan, now in its 30th year, the Kazakh-American Free University, where he remains an advisor to the President and to the Founding President. Mr. Hallman also served as the Superintendent and Headmaster of Schools for Tempe Preparatory Academies, ranked 15th in the nation by US News & World Report, and by the Arizona Board of Regents as first in the State of Arizona for graduating students from four-year colleges and universities.
As an economist, Mr. Hallman has applied his expertise to the financial challenges facing government institutions, including the City of Tempe, Valley Metro Rail, and the Maricopa Association of Governments, including in settling bus strikes in the City of Phoenix on behalf of the Amalgamated Transit Union, and negotiating a Development Agreement on behalf of the City of Tempe to facilitate the creation of the Tempe Entertainment District.
Mr. Hallman has been actively involved in government service and political matters. Early in his career, Mr. Hallman worked for Ronald Reagan’s campaign as a deputy assistant to the national campaign director and continued his work by representing and assisting parties in prosecuting claims testing the Constitutionality of Maricopa County’s little Hatch Act, protestors’ rights to sit on Tempe sidewalks and newspapers’ rights to public records, access to public meetings and distribution of newspapers through sidewalk vending devices. He has represented political parties and candidates in ballot challenges, testing the Constitutionality of Arizona’s party regulation statutes, the electronic distribution of voter data and similar matters. Mr. Hallman also served a term on the Tempe City Council and two terms as the Mayor of Tempe. As the Arizona Republic said, Hallman is “one of those rare public officials who meticulously connects the dots.” Mr. Hallman currently is serving as Honorary Consul to the Republic of Kazakhstan.