Brent Haden was born and raised on a farm at Mexico, Missouri. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Haden graduated from Harvard Law School in 2002, where he was a member of the Federalist Society and served on the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
In 2002, Haden joined Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal LLP, where his practice focused on construction and environmental litigation.
In 2004, Haden joined the Kansas Livestock Association, one of the nation’s oldest agricultural associations, as assistant counsel. While at the Kansas Livestock Association, he worked in both a traditional legal capacity and as a lobbyist on issues involving environmental regulation, property rights and eminent domain disputes, and tax policy.
In 2007, Haden joined Graves Bartle Marcus & Garrett, LLC where he continued to represent agricultural clients and defend clients in white collar criminal cases. Haden then served as Chief of Staff to Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’Neal in the 2009 and 2010 legislative sessions before moving to Columbia to form Haden & Byrne in 2011.
He lives in rural Callaway County with his wife Connie and his two sons.
Mike is a native of Wellington, New Zealand. After spending time in Washington D.C. through his teen years, he returned to New Zealand for college, graduating with degrees in English, Economics and Law from the University of Otago. Mike then spent three years with the New Zealand treasury as a tax policy analyst before returning to the United States for law school.
Mike graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2002. Upon graduation, he joined the prestigious Washington D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly as an associate. While working at Williams & Connolly, Mike was fortunate enough to be a part of a federal criminal trial team headed by the legendary criminal defense attorney, Brendan Sullivan. The trial lasted for 8 months in Hartford, Connecticut and to this day, Mike credits working under Brendan as the formative experience in his career.
In June 2005, Mike followed his wife to Columbia, MO when she was offered a professorship at the University of Missouri School of Law. Mike took a job at the Missouri State Public Defender to build on the trial experience he had at Williams & Connolly. Mike rose to the highest level of public defender in a year and a half and first or second chaired nineteen criminal jury trials in three and a half years – including three murder trials.
Mike left the Missouri State Public Defender’s office in March 2009 to start up his own practice, and joined with Brent Haden to form Haden & Byrne in 2011. Mike practices in the area of both civil and criminal litigation. Mike has done pro bono work for the Innocence Project, been a guest lecturer at Mizzou on multiple occasions and was lead counsel prosecuting Al Capone in the 2008 Historical Trial at the University of Missouri School of Law. Mike is admitted to practice law in New York, Washington D.C., and Missouri.