Our Founders
Walker Heye opened its doors in 2005, but the practice that shaped the firm began long before that. The name above the door is not a brand. It is the signature of the two attorneys who built this firm and the standard they set for everyone who has practiced under it since.
This page is our ongoing acknowledgment of their work, their vision, and the foundation they laid.
Craig Walker
Founder, Partner
A Tri-City native and a Washington attorney since 1976, Craig Walker built his practice on real estate, business formation and operation, commercial litigation, and alternative dispute resolution, the work that still anchors the firm today.
His commitment to the region runs beyond the practice. He serves as general counsel to the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), spent five years on the Richland School Board, and is a past president of the Benton-Franklin Bar Association. He continues to practice at the firm he co-founded.
View Craig's Bio
Tom Heye
Founder, Retired
Tom Heye built his career around the kind of law that sits closest to home: helping families plan for the future and navigate what comes with age. A Washington attorney since 1966, he became a trusted name in the Tri-Cities for elder law, estate planning, trusts, probate, and guardianships, one family at a time.
Tom retired from active practice on December 31, 2023. The standard of care he set continues through every client the firm serves in estate planning, elder law, and guardianship today.
View Tom's BioThe Walker Heye Story
Walker Heye was founded in 2005. Tom had been admitted to the Washington State Bar in 1966, Craig in 1976, and when they joined to form the firm, they brought close to seven decades of combined legal experience to its first day.
Tom and Craig set out to build a firm around their own strengths and the clients they had spent careers serving. The opening was anything but smooth. When the space they had counted on fell through just days before the firm was set to launch, they found the Lee Boulevard location that same day. A fortunate turn with the phone company, a system another customer had ordered but never purchased that fit their needs exactly, had them fully operational by Monday morning, files in hand and key clients alongside them. The firm opened its doors without missing a step.
Today, the firm practices across nine areas of law. The foundation Tom and Craig built, including estate planning, probate and trust administration, elder law and guardianship, business and real estate transactions, and alternative dispute resolution, remains central to the firm's work, served alongside the broader practice that has grown around it.
The firm operates around a straightforward idea: provide serious, trustworthy representation to the families and businesses of the Tri-Cities, and stay close enough to the community to actually know the people you serve. That principle has shaped every hire.
An Enduring Legacy
The decision to keep the Walker Heye name, regardless of who is actively practicing at any given time, is intentional. It is a standing commitment to the standard Tom and Craig set and to the clients, families, and businesses who came to trust it.
Every attorney who practices under this name practices in continuation of their work. Every client who walks through the door today is served by a firm whose foundation was built by the two of them.