2011 May

Docket The

Denver Bar Association I Vol. 33 Issue 5 I May 2011

Inside Teaching Forensics in the Middle East

by Mitch Morrissey

You’ve Passed the Bar ... Now What?

by Becky Bye

10 Tips to Manage Your Debt

by MINES & Associates

xx

The Legacy of

John (and Abigail) Adams

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303.894.9900 800.737.3436 specialcounsel.com Marya Brancio esq. executive director

Docket The

Denver Bar Association I Vol. 33 Issue 5 I May 2011

ON THE COVER 4

John and Abigail Adams: Law Day Legacy of Partnership

9

You’ve Passed the Bar ... Now What?

14

Ten Ways to Cut Your Debt Now

16

Camels and Crime Scenes: A Lesson on DNA in Abu Dhabi

FEATURES 6

Law Day Art Contest

11

Seven Tips for the New Attorney Entering Big Law

13

Mystery Surrounding ‘Justice’ Highlights Question on Citizenship

18

Finding Grounding in Morning Coffee

20

Into the Grand

23

Around the Horn: A Denver Sports Update for Lawyers

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6

IN EVERY ISSUE 26

Legal Affairs

28

Dates on the Docket

30

Picture This

The Docket A publication of the Denver Bar Association.

Views expressed in articles are those of the author, and not the views of the authors’ employers, The Docket Committee, or the Denver Bar Association, unless expressly stated. Deadline for articles is five weeks prior to the issue date; for example, February articles are due (on disk or by email) Dec. 19. To advertise, call Alexa Drago at (303) 824-5313.

Docket Committee: Mariya Barmak, Norman Beecher, Becky Bye, Michael J. Decker, Craig C. Eley, David L. Erickson, Loren R. Ginsburg, Robert J. Kapelke, Paul F. Kennebeck, Natalie Lucas (chair), Alicia J. McCommons, Daniel R. McCune, Douglas I. McQuiston, William R. Meyer, Eric R. Newmark, Richard L. Ott, Jr., Siddhartha H. Rathod, Gregory D. Rawlings, Frank J.

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16 Schuchat, Marshall A. Snider, Daniel A. Sweetser, Erica Vargas, Anthony J. Viorst, Dennis P. Walker, Elizabeth A. Weishaupl DBA Officers: Stacy A. Carpenter, President; Ilene L. Bloom, PresidentElect; Daniel R. McCune, First Vice President; Kwali M. Farbes, Second Vice President; John T. Baker, Immediate Past President; Richard Strauss, Treasurer Board of Trustees Members: James G. Benjamin, Paul Chessin, Nancy L. Cohen, Michelle B. Ferguson, Valerie A. Garcia, Annie T. Kao, Vance O. Knapp, Meshach Rhoades, Anthony M. Ryan, Daniel A. Sweetser; Chuck Turner, Executive Director Editor: Sara Crocker P.C. Editor: Chuck Turner Graphic Designer: Kate Mills

(303) 860-1115 denbar.org/docket Copyright 2011. The Docket (ISSN 10847820) is published monthly, except for the combined issue of July/August, by the Denver Bar Association, 1900 Grant St., Suite 900, Denver, CO 80203-4336. All rights reserved.

The price of an annual subscription to members of the DBA ($15) is included in their dues as part of their membership. Periodicals postage paid at Denver, CO and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER send address corrections to The Docket, Denver Bar Association, 1900 Grant St., Suite 900, Denver, CO 80203-4336.

May 2011 I The Docket 3

John and Abigail Adams: Law Day Legacy of Partnership

“The domestic and the public spheres are permeable.

What happens in the one affects what happens in the other.”

—from “Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage” by Edith B. Gelles

B y J u st ice s G reg Hob b s and Nanc y R ice

L

aw Day 2011, observed May 1, celebrates the legacy of John Adams. Forever part of this legacy is Abigail Smith, the woman who partnered with him.

Their letters—1,100 of them written between 1762 and 1801—shine with wit, intellect, character, compassion, and critical appraisal and appreciation of and for each other. Our April 18 Colorado Bar Association CLE presentation re-enacts their dialogue through a paired reading from letters they wrote from courtship in 1762 to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

John Adams is well known for describing a republic as “a government of laws, and not of men” (in the widely cirA Meeting of the Minds, In Letters

J

ustices Hobbs and Rice performed as John and Abigail Adams in April, but you can still watch the program by going to cobar.org/cle or calling (303)860-0608. The cost is $18 and the proceeds benefit the Legal Aid Foundation of Colorado.

4 The Docket I May 2011

culated letter penned Feb. 6, 1775, under the pseudonym Novanglus).

Three months before the Declaration of Independence, which he enlisted Thomas Jefferson to draft, Abigail argues her case as if she were an equal. In her letter from March 31, 1776, she says a government of men serving only men is tyranny.

“Remember all men would be tyrants if they could ... That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute.”

She urges that the Continental Congress, in declaring “an independency,” should adopt “a new Code of Laws” by which men “give up the harsh title of Master.”

At the beginning of their courtship, Abigail acknowledges John’s intellect and scholarship but, in his “nearer inspection of Mankind ... and the corruptions of the Heart, which I believe you often find desperately wicked and deceitful” she cautions him against being “too severe ... that you do not make quite so many allowances as Humane Nature requires” (April 12, 1764). John welcomes her critique by complimenting her “Habit of Reading, Writing and Thinking” (May 7,

1764). They marry in October 1764.

She admires and supports his public service, but she painfully misses him during long absences caused by his on-the-circuit law practice, two Continental Congresses, and a long period of diplomatic duty in France and the Netherlands. She joins him in England from 1784 to 1788, when he serves as the first American minister to England.

Their grief of separation is mutual and their belief in each other’s abilities is a solace to both. He entrusts her with their family farming business, the education of their four children, and the role of leveling his pride and ambition. Selfeducated from reading the classics, like Lincoln did, she becomes an insightful first citizen of our new republic.

John’s commitment to the rule of law leads him to defend eight British soldiers, and their captain, who fired on protesting Massachusetts colonists in the Boston Massacre of 1770. He asserts self-defense to the actions of an unruly mob and gains the acquittal of all but two of the soldiers, who receive a lesser conviction of manslaughter and are punished only by a branding on their

thumbs.

By 1772, signs of a “gathering storm” are brewing, and John is tiring of the legal practice circuit. “This wandering, itinerating Life grows more and more disagreeable to me. I want to see my Wife and Children every Day, I want to see my Grass and Blossoms and Corn” (May 23, 1772).

In their separation, each becomes a witness for the other. John fears that Boston will “suffer Martyrdom” for the “Cause of Truth, of Virtue, of Liberty and of Humanity” but predicts that Lord North “will as surely be defeated ... as he was in the Project of the Tea” (May 12, 1774). Abigail observes that “by an excessive love of peace” the Spartans “neglected the means of making it sure and lasting.” Peace cannot be “purchased at the price of liberty.” She closes this letter by wishing “you every Publick as well as private blessing” (Aug. 19, 1774).

In Philadelphia John grows weary with endless orations. “I am wearied to Death with the Life I lead. The Business of the Congress is tedious beyond Expression ... Every Man in it is a great Man—an orator, a Critick, a statesman, and therefore every Man upon every Question must shew his oratory, his Criticism, and his Political Abilities” (Oct. 9, 1774).

Abigail’s response is full of grace and resolve. She says how “ardently I long for your return,” then encourages him to stand fast and act in the best interests of those who have no idea of the weighty decisions that must be made. “The People in the Country begin to be very anxious for the congress to rise. They have no Idea of the Weighty Business you have to transact, and their Blood boils with indignation at the Hostile preparations they are constant witness of” (Oct. 16, 1774).

A Note on Women’s Suffrage

I

n 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John, asking him to “remember the ladies” in the new code of laws. He replied that the men will fight the “despotism of the petticoat.”

Since Colorado became a state in 1876, 84 justices have served on the Colorado Supreme Court. In 1979, Jean

In 1775, John leads the Continental Congress to choose George Washington as General of the Army. Greatly satisfied with this choice, he reports that the members of the Congress are seeing “the Necessity of pursuing vigorous measures ... nothing but Fortitude, Vigour, and Perseverance can save us.” But “Progress must be slow.” He likens America to a “large Fleet sailing under Convoy ... the fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and the slowest” and to a “Coach” with the “swiftest horses” that “must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace” (June 17, 1775).

Abigail is riveted by his task of pulling his colleagues together. As fuel to his flame, she asks a series of questions about the form of government that might be established. “(W)hat Code of Laws will be established? How shall we be governed so as to retain our Liberties?

Can any government be free which is not administered by general stated laws?

Who shall frame these Laws? Who will give them force and energy?” (Nov. 27, 1775).

John rises to her challenge with pregnant answers. As 1776 dawns, he pens his “Thoughts on Government.” “(T)he form of government which communicates ... happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best ... that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of republics.” He suggests a government with an assembly divided into two bodies, an executive, and a judicial power “distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”

Abigail continues to praise and criti-

E. Dubofsky became the first female justice. Since then, 10 men and five other women have been appointed to the court, including Mary Mullarkey, Rebecca Kourlis, Nancy Rice, Allison Eid, and Monica Márquez. Justice Mullarkey became the longest serving Chief Justice in Colorado history. In 1893, Colorado

Justices Nancy Rice and Greg Hobbs. cize his work. “A Government of more Stability is much wanted in this colony, and they are ready to receive it from the Hands of Congress.” But she rebukes him and his fellows for forgetting their partners. While “you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives.” She warns him of “Arbitrary power ... notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters” (May 7, 1776).

On July 3, 1776, John reports to her, “Yesterday the greatest Question was decided ... that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.”

She congratulates him, credits their partnership, celebrates the country, and prays for a constitution founded on justice. “(N)or am I a little Gratified when I reflect that a person so nearly connected with me has had the Honour of being a principal actor, in laying a foundation for its future Greatness. May the foundation of our new constitution be Justice, Truth and Righteousness” (July 14, 1776).

On this Law Day, may we emulate the combined genius of men and women committed to public service and private felicity. D

was the second state to recognize the right of women to vote, after Wyoming, a territory when it did so in 1869. Capping a prolonged struggle, women finally gained the right to vote throughout the U.S. upon passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

May 2011 I The Docket 5

Emma Coughlin

J'Lynn Terroade

JoJo Rita Rayna McClintock

Law Day Art Contest he DBA’s 4th Annual Law Day Art Contest took place at the end of April. This year’s theme for Law Day is the Legacy of John Adams, from Boston to Guantánamo. John Adams’ role in the 1770 Boston Massacre trials is regarded as a noteworthy example of commitment to the rule of law and defense of the rights of the accused, even in cases when advocates represent unpopular clients and become involved in matters that generate public controversy. Democracy

6 The Docket I May 2011

Education Committee member Jason Cook came up with lesson plans involving the theme. The DBA had several submissions for the contest.

Haley Drake and August Horning, two fifth graders at Polaris at Ebert Elementary School, are the winners of the art contest. Their teacher, Danny Mey, taught his class the importance of Law Day using the theme and the students worked on the art following this lesson.

Runners up, whose drawings are above, are fifth graders J’Lynn Terroade, Emma

Coughlin, Rayna McClintock, and JoJo Rita.

Thanks and congratulations to all who participated. D

On the Cover:

W

inning drawings by fifth graders August Horning (top) and Haley Drake (bottom) depict the Boston Massacre trials. John Adams represented the eight British soldiers and captain accused of murder, and all but two were acquitted.

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION

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You’ve Passed the Bar ... Now What?

Tips on Making the Transition to the Practice of Law and Ways to Get Involved

by Beck y B y e

T

o all of the newly admitted lawyers, congratulations and welcome to the practice of law!

After many years of attending school, internships, and taking various required exams and finally the bar exam, you are now a licensed attorney. You might have one (or more) of a variety of competing emotions that can range from elation, excitement, or even fear and anxiety as you embark on the practice of law. And yes, they call it “practicing” for a reason, as you will always be learning about the ever-changing substance of law and the workings of the legal practice.

With the massive public scrutiny of law schools and the heightened amount of debt associated with becoming a lawyer, this is the time for you to make the most of your financial, emotional, and

time investments into this important profession.1 Giving time to various causes— law-related or otherwise—can greatly enhance your professional (and personal) life in more ways than you would think possible. Plus, due to greater competition in the legal field, and the compromised state of the economy, bolstering yourself professionally can help you distinguish yourself as a new attorney.

With that in mind, I recommend getting involved with the Colorado legal community in a way that is meaningful to you. You will find a variety of mentors and distinguished attorneys who are eager and excited to help you throughout your career. For example, the Denver Bar Association (DBA), the Colorado Bar Association (CBA), and other local or specialty bar associations can provide

you with invaluable networking opportunities, legal and nonlegal volunteer opportunities, continuing legal education, social Bye types of professional and personal assistance. Other types of groups, such as the Inns of Court (see “Inn-side the Inns of Court” in the October 2010 issue of The Docket at denbar.org/docket) and your law school alumni associations, are at your disposal with lawyers and judges happy to provide their wisdom and help throughout your practice.

You also should strongly consider partaking in pro bono work throughout your career. Through pro bono work, lawyers can make a profound impact on

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society and on people’s lives. Further, pro bono service provides the means to gain very in-depth legal experience, representing clients firsthand—experience that many attorneys are not able to achieve until later in their careers. If you are interested in pro bono work, you have various options, such as contacting the Metro Volunteers Lawyers or the CBA’s Appellate Pro Bono programs; both match attorneys with pro bono matters and can help pair you with an attorney mentor for your pro bono legal work.

Regardless of your schedule and how much time you have to devote to your personal and professional life, you can find endless opportunities to give back. It is important for all lawyers, particularly new lawyers, to stay involved in professional organizations and volunteer their time in various endeavors. D

It’s Monday, the First Day of the Rest of Your Life.

Too bad last Friday was the last day to file the Bergstrom motion.

Did you know that missing deadlines continues to be one of the most common mistakes leading to malpractice claims? The failure to file a document is the second most common alleged error and the failure to calendar properly was the fifth most common mistake leading to a malpractice claim*. A dual calendaring system which includes a firm or team networked calendar should be used by every member of your firm.

At Minnesota Lawyers Mutual we don’t just sell you a policy. We work hard to give you the tools and knowledge necessary to reduce your risk of a malpractice claim. We invite you to give us a call at 800-422-1370 or go online at www.mlmins.com and find out for yourself what we mean when we say, “Protecting your practice is our policy.”

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Protecting Your Practice is Our Policy.

800.422.1370

www.mylawyersmutual.com

www.mlmins.com

* American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability. (2008).

Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims, 2004-2007. Chicago, IL: Haskins, Paul and Ewins, Kathleen Marie.

10 The Docket I May 2011

Life - Denver Docket 2011

Becky Bye is a member and former chair of The Docket committee, Chair of the Colorado Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, a member of the Doyle Inn of Court, a member of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Alumni Council, and a passionate advocate for attorneys, young and less young alike, to get involved and give back.

1. This issue is a very long and serious one, which is outside the scope of this article. However, I plan to examine the issue of law school debt and the number of lawyers that enter the workforce every year, which will be published in The Docket later in year. If you have any insight or ideas, please email me at beckybye@gmail.com.

Seven Tips for the New Attorney Entering Big Law

by Jame s Hardy

I

t’s graduation time, meaning several newly minted JDs are looking for work. Legal hiring has been abysmal the past few years—more lawyers seem to be losing their jobs than students gaining new ones. Meanwhile, law schools continue to pump out graduates in record numbers. Fortunately, there seems to be an uptick in legal hiring and a thawing in the freeze on entry-level hires. What, then, does a new graduate at a Big Law firm need to know?

1. Be grateful. In these thin times, few have your opportunity. And your employer knows it.

Be grateful for your good fortune and be humble among your peers who aren’t so lucky. In the current market, any law grad stepping into a job straight out of law school is fortunate—especially those stepping into a six-figure salary.

2. It’s All About the Hours. As a Big Law associate, your number one asset to your employer is your time. This is especially true of new associates, who have few skills and no clients to call their own.

Unless you were one of those students who left the law library only to shower, you are in for a lifestyle adjustment. Most Big Law firms demand 2,000 billable hours a year. This is much harder to achieve than it seems on its face.

I have gone on at some length on billable hours elsewhere (see The Colorado Lawyer, August 2010, “Point/ Counterpoint: Kill the Billable Hour”).

Here, I will simply leave you with the three things you most need to know about them.

First, it is likely you will work more than you want to or even thought yourself capable of. Do not tax yourself beyond the breaking point—but you should probably get close. This is what your employer expects. Draw a line across which you shall never cross—whether it’s for family, community, or yourself— and don’t ever breach this personal pact.

Second, pay excruciating attention to how you record your time. Many a new associate has been undone by poohpoohing the importance of tracking every six minutes and cogently describing the tasks performed. Do not become write-off roadkill. More importantly, never inflate your hours.

Third, don’t get used to it. Do not allow “hours creep” to convince you this is the new normal. If you do, years from now you will regret the time and opportunities lost. It may seem counterintuitive to think you could become comfortable with too much work. It’s not. You are entering a business culture built on this principle. Work hard, but remain apart from those who live to work.

3. Know Yourself. Easier said than done when you are working 80-hour weeks, which is why you must know now, as you enter Big Law, exactly what you want out of it. Are you determined to make partner, accumulate financial and social rewards, and die at your desk with an overworked smile on your face?

Are you instead on the two-year plan, trying to get a leg up on your student loans before you head to a more lifestylefriendly job and gain experience and résumé prestige in the process? Or are you somewhere in between?

Whatever your goal, know what it is going in. The personal sacrifices you make will be justifiable to yourself and comprehensible to others only if you have a purpose behind them. Do not be blown in the wind, but also resist the pull to barrel ahead like a Denver driver on I-70 on a Saturday snow day, tailgating and impatiently passing all in his path.

Be purposeful, but sane.

4. Know Who Your “Clients” Are. As a new associate, you have two different kinds of clients. There are the firm’s clients, whom you are unlikely to interact with much at first. Then, there are the clients you will do the majority of your work for—the partners and associates ahead of you in the hierarchy. You should

be eager and willing to work for both. As you start your career, be particularly attentive to the second group.

In the big Hardy picture, you should focus on the actual clients. The service you provide and the relationships you forge may determine your long-term career path.

Big Law feeds in-house counsel jobs because Big Law clients like to hire the familiar and proven. Become familiar with them and prove yourself. This will create opportunities and give you value within your firm. Unsurprisingly, the associates valued (and recruited) by the firm’s clients are also the associates who are most valuable to the firm.

Opportunities will arise more frequently and with more responsibility attached if you establish a sterling reputation with your intrafirm clients. Always provide great client service, even if the “client” is a midlevel associate. Don’t forget that your intrafirm clients are just a step removed from the real thing.

5. Get Comfortable with Hierarchy ... but Treat your Support Staff like Royalty. In many ways, the new associate role is the toughest to negotiate.

On the one hand, you are clearly at the bottom of the pyramid, with every lawyer in the firm ordering you about. On the other, there are paralegals, administrative assistants, and tech specialists seemingly at your disposal.

How do you integrate these disparate roles? The key is realizing that you work for all of them. It may seem that you are supposed to order around one group and take orders from the other, but it’s not so simple.

Get used to mixed messages and a lack of clarity from your nominal bosses.

Never forget there is no such thing as autonomy in a Big Law firm. Even the May 2011 I The Docket 11

managing partner takes orders from someone.

With respect to your support staff, you must recognize that they generally know more than you do, have been there much longer, and will likely still be there when you are gone. They understand the firm’s institutional history and culture in a way you will never comprehend. They know where the skeletons are buried.

To mix a metaphor, don’t become a skeleton yourself. To succeed in your relationships with support staff, you must treat them in a human and friendly way, not from a dictatorial stance.

“

you than how you spent your money.

If you can sustain the Big Law pace for an entire career, you’ll have few opportunities to enjoy the money. If you can’t sustain that pace, living a lavish lifestyle while you are in Big Law will waste valuable financial resources. Don’t assume you will always make the big bucks. Live like a student much longer than you need to. Your career will thank you with flexibility and opportunities that do not require a six-figure salary.

This is not to say a lawyer cannot have a long and satisfying career in Big Law, but if the sole, or even primary,

When you look back, how you spent your time will be infinitely more important to you than how you spent your money.”

Overuse “please” and “thank you.”

Treat support staff like royalty. This is the one bit of advice you must not ignore.

Not only that, it’s the right thing to do.

6. Don’t Do it for the Lifestyle.

Perhaps the biggest mistake Big Law lawyers make is taking the gig for the lifestyle it enables. Money is not lifestyle.

When you look back, how you spent your time will be infinitely more important to

motivation is money, it’s unlikely. The most successful Big Law lawyers have succeeded because they love the work, the clients, the culture, the big cases, opportunities to significantly impact the world, or all of these. The money, though never unimportant, is icing on the cake.

7. Don’t Take My Word for It. The best advice I ever received about the legal profession came from a law review

article. When I read Patrick Schiltz’s “On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession” in the middle of my first year of Big Law practice, it confirmed my burgeoning suspicions. The author is neither a countercultural critic nor a complaining layabout. Rather, he’s a former Supreme Court clerk, big firm associate, law school professor, associate dean, and is now a federal district court judge. In his article, he penetrates the cultural and institutional realities that all lawyers who have spent any decent amount of time in Big Law understand but rarely discuss.

Do yourself a favor and read this now. It will help you navigate your Big Law career, whether it lasts for three years or 30.

With that, I bid you busy days and not too many nights and weekends.

Good luck! D James S. Hardy is a Deputy Colorado State Public Defender in the Appellate Division. Previously, he was a judicial clerk for Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey. He also spent close to five years as a litigation associate at two AmLaw 250 firms in New York and Denver, respectively.

He can be reached at jshardy@gmail.com.

Here’s to 50 Years (and counting)

Join us for the Senior Spring Banquet on Wednesday, June 22 The DBA Seniors Committee will honor members who became lawyers in 1961.

Lawyers and guests of all ages are invited to honor these 20 accomplished attorneys at the Senior Spring Banquet on Tuesday, June 8, at the University Club.

The banquet will start with cocktails at 5:30 p.m., and will be followed by dinner and a program for the honorees.

Please RSVP to Alexa Drago at adrago@cobar.org or (303) 824-5313. Tickets are $45 per person.

Honorees are:

s H.G. Austin s James A. Clark s Roger C. Cohen s Charles H. Cowpethewaite s Herbert L. Fenster s Stuart S. Gunckel s Peter C. Guthery

12 The Docket I May 2011

s James E. Hautzinger s John ( Jack) A. Kintzele s John Mason s Joe C. Medina s Kenneth R. Oldham s Robert M. Phares s Hon. Leonard P. Plank

s Charles R. Robert s Hon. Edwin G. Ruland s Donald P. Shwayder s Arnold C. Wegher s Hon. L.T. Woodford

Book Review

Mystery Surrounding ‘Justice’ Highlights Question on Citizenship

by K e rry Hammond

M

ost Americans know that the Constitution requires the president of the United States to be a citizen. What many may not know, however, is that this all important document is silent on whether the same rule applies to a Supreme Court justice.

As a country, our laws follow the guidelines set out in the Constitution, but is it possible that we confuse the way things have always been with the way things must be?

Jay Lillie takes this perception of a citizenship requirement and weaves a fictional story out of a what-if. What if a Supreme Court justice was nominated by our president, confirmed by the Senate and sworn into the Court—and only after this process was completed evidence was discovered that put that person’s U.S. citizenship into question?

“Justice” creates a scenario that is very plausible and challenges the reader with a dilemma that may or may not have a correct answer. Lillie offers his own take on how the powers that be might deal with this type of situation and the effects it may have on our government.

The story opens with an unidentified body found in an alley in Chicago.

The labels have been removed from the clothing the victim was wearing and no

identification can be found. The Chicago police officer in charge of the investigation eventually determines that the victim was an American reporter for a foreign press, but is told by his employer that he was not reporting on a story that could possibly require his presence in Chicago. At the same time, in Washington, D.C., a Supreme Court justice has retired and the president is in the process of nominating a replacement. A team of advisers, along with the FBI, screen the president’s candidate and approve her nomination. The nominee then is confirmed by the Senate and is sworn in.

As the murder investigation continues, the Chicago police begin to speculate that there is a connection between their murder victim and the newly appointed Supreme Court justice. The reporter seems to have been researching the ju st ice ’s background, including her childhood in New Orleans and her immigrant mother who came to the United States just before her birth— and now resides in a Chicago neighborhood.

“Justice” is a fun read, with a thoughtprovoking ang le.

L illie makes the politics of a presidential appointment of a Supreme Court justice even more interesting with his fictional story and simplified take on the process, along

with a behind-the-scenes look. Some of the dialogue is stiff and occasionally the characters seem to have too much access to information that one would expect to be confidential, but the storyline is very interesting and the plot keeps you reading. The author even throws in a surprise twist at the end so that when you close the book, you continue to think about it.

D “Justice” by Jay Lillie 264 pages. Published by Ivy House Publishing Group. Available in paperback for $15.

May 2011 I The Docket 13

Ten Ways to Cut Your Debt Now

by MINE S & A ss o ci ate s

F

or many, the decision to get out of debt is preceded by weeks, months, or possibly years of worry about these obligations. But it’s important to know that getting rid of debt can actually start with some very small steps and strategies that you can begin today.

Advice is a good first step. A meeting with a professional financial planner can help you investigate all sources of income and total up all your obligations—most will make you bring all your bills with you—and tailor a plan that matches your needs and circumstances. In general terms, here are 10 steps you should follow: 1. Get a grip on the amount of debt you have. You can’t overcome a debt problem without knowing how much you owe. Start pulling together every bill with a balance where you’re charged non-tax-deductible interest— credit cards, auto loans for a start—and get a total. If you’ve missed any payments on any of these balances, bring those current first. Then, organize the rest of the debt, along interest rates, and set a payment order that attacks your highest rate balances first. This also is a

14 The Docket I May 2011

good time to check your credit reports to make sure there are no other surprises in your credit picture. For the three credit reports you are entitled to for free each year, go to annualcreditreport.com. Any other credit report with the word “free” in its name that asks for a credit card number will likely charge you—avoid those.

2. Put the credit cards away. Cut up your cards if you have to, but at the very least, put them in a safe place where they’re far away from your wallet and your phone or computer (so you don’t use them for catalog or Web orders).

Once your debt is paid off, then you can consider which accounts you will use— sparingly—in the future. Keep the cards with the lowest interest rates.

3. Now get a grip on spending.

It’s time to make a budget. For a month, start tracking your spending—every dime. You can do this on paper or on a computer-based solution like Quicken or Mint.com. As you go through the numbers weekly, start identifying things you can live without—coffee and doughnuts, expensive lunches (carryout is a huge budget-buster), and any other frills that can be cut or eliminated. Once you start to suspect that a particular spending item isn’t absolutely essential, cut it

immediately—don’t wait for the end of the month. When you get to the end of the month, build a spending plan that covers the essentials and a few small treats, and then directs any additional savings you’ve identified toward paying off the debt.

4. Try to refinance your home debt. If you have not recently refinanced your mortgage or home equity debt, see if there’s an opportunity to do so while rates are still low. You’ll need at least 10 percent equity in your home and a credit score exceeding 740 to qualify for the best rates, but start negotiating with your current lender first and see how well you do.

5. Try to refinance your credit card debt. If you are facing an overwhelming amount of credit card debt, talk to each credit card company directly to see if you can lower rates or monthly payment amounts. Don’t fall for the 2 a.m. come-ons from debt resolution companies—they generally charge high fees and take the payment process out of your hands, which may mean late or missed payments. It’s not easy to negotiate a better deal and you may need to insist on speaking with several supervisors. If you succeed at getting a more favorable deal, it’s better if you keep the payment

process in your hands so you can keep a constant eye on how your situation is improving.

6. If you need outside help, use some smarts. The provisions of the new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act that took effect in February 2010 require that credit card issuers print a toll-free number for a nonprofit credit counseling service on every bill. It’s important to know that the credit card companies fund these nonprofits, so they’re not acting completely in your interest. They also are not foolproof in making sure bills get paid on time. Any time you let someone else handle your finances, you face that risk.

If you are looking for outside assistance and negotiation with your balances, these agencies are a better option than those credit-repair agencies you’ll see advertised on TV. A financial planner may be able to offer specific negotiation tips that can help you keep better control of your debt issues.

7. Learn to use cash or debit. Try to migrate as much spending as you can to cash, as long as you get receipts that help you track that spending. A more efficient solution—particularly if you download your bank transactions into a financial tracking computer program—

is the debit card. Debit cards wearing a bankcard logo are typically welcome at most stores where credit cards are accepted. This way, you pay cash without carrying cash. If you don’t have such a card, you can probably get one from your bank to replace your traditional ATM card, but remember to tell them to limit your buying power on the card to only what you have in your account. Then, keep a close watch on spending so you don’t overdraw.

8. If you can do it safely, DIY. You don’t have to pay for a hand car wash or a lawn service if you can do such things yourself. For any home or auto maintenance chores you may have during the year, learn as much as you can about those tasks and how much skill, money, and time it takes to do them. Previous generations made do-it-yourself a necessity. See if that option is right for you; you might save considerable money doing it. Also, for bigger jobs, pair up with friends and family and you can help each other save money.

9. Plan your shopping in advance.

Impulse buying had its own role in the debt crisis. It’s time to stamp it out at least until your debt issues are fully under control. Start making a centralized list of necessary shopping items—keep the

list for grocery, discount store, and other locations on one page if you can so you can see everything you’re considering.

Mark off what seems less than necessary.

Use coupons and other discounts—the same goes for online purchases. Always do a search for coupon and discount codes to save money on shipping and overall purchase price. When you can, buy used—recycled clothes, furniture, and home goods will save you money.

Again, direct all savings toward debt.

10. At the end of the rainbow, don’t restart the problem. Once the slate is clean, don’t start spending again.

Start saving and investing.

Published as part of MINES & Associates Personal Advantage services and available at http://MINES.Personal Advantage.com. Originally published by the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®).

Free Financial Counseling is available through the Colorado Attorney Assistance Program. Call MINES at (800) 873-7138 to set up an appointment.

May 2011 I The Docket 15

Camels and Crime Scenes

A Lesson on DNA in Abu Dhabi

by M i t ch M orrisse y

I

n the 1970s, Abu Dhabi, the cosmopolitan capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), began its extraordinar y climb to international recognition. This southwest Asian federation is generally thought to be the richest country in the world, and the Persian Gulf city of Abu Dhabi has seen its population grow from about 25,000 in 1960 to approximately 900,000 today.

To compete with the moder n world’s centuries of progress, Abu Dhabi invested dramatically in its infrastructure, systems, and institutions. It formed partnerships with organizations throughout the world to impor t cultural and scientific advances. The Guggenheim Museum, New York University, and the Colorado School of Mines are examples of the high performance Western partners that have joined with Abu Dhabi to accelerate its progress.

When Abu Dhabi decided to build the finest crime lab in the world, it researched the best administrative practices and how to manage the new resources it was building. Even though Denver’s new Crime Lab has not been built, Denver has developed award-winning programs in its Cold Case Project and DNA Burglary Project and has achieved national and

A camel race in Abu Dhabi.

16 The Docket I May 2011

Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, Forensic Anthropologist Mool Verma, and Denver Police Department Crime Lab Commander Greggory LaBerge in front of the Abu Dhabi Forensic Evidence Department. international recognition for making advancements in law enforcement technolog y. Because of this track record, Abu Dhabi turned to Denver for guidance and instruction.

In October 2010, the Commander of the Denver Police Depar tment Crime Lab, Greggory LaBerge, Forensic Anthropologist Mool Verma, and I, as the Denver District Attorney, were invited to provide the instruction they needed.

We looked forward not only to providing training on DNA and forensic matters, but also to explaining how the key to the success of Denver’s program is the triangle of cooperation among the Denver Police Depar tment, the Crime L ab, and the Denver District Attorney’s Office. The extremely high level of cooperation and collaboration among these three entities is rare in the United States and has been the foundation for achieving our common goal of fighting crime.

O ur tr ip was paid for by the government of Abu Dhabi. Each of us taug ht

classes every day for a week. Our students were young forensic scientists, attorneys, and judges—all determined to excel and understand the information the team from Denver was providing. Every day I would face a room full of white-robed, bearded men and a few women who were scientists or crime scene investigators. Through interpreters of varying ability, I would discuss forensic science and the law, issues around DNA in prosecution, as well as familial searching with DNA. Mool and Gregg delivered separate lectures geared toward their areas of expertise. Mool’s classes were on basic hair examination and Gregg focused on forensic DNA statistics.

We discussed the plans for the Abu Dhabi Crime Lab with our hosts.

Thanks to a local bond initiative, Denver has finalized plans for its own new Crime Lab, but Abu Dhabi’s process differed from ours in one significant way: we have a strict budget, they have unlimited resources. It’s amazing what millions of dollars can do to focus in on a problem.

The people we met were gracious and eager that we understand their culture. Abu Dhabi is a shining new

city that grew out of the desert thanks to massive hydrocarbon resources.

Without a gradually evolving culture, there are not many tourist sites. We visited desert tombs and the Heritage Village,where we saw an interesting re-creation of a Bedouin village, representative of the predominant lifestyle of the area until the early 1960s when oil was found and construction of the metropolitan area started. Down the road is Dubai—another impressive new city.

For the most part, people in Abu Dhabi spend a great deal of time escaping the heat in icy cold shopping malls. We visited the Palace Hotel, one of the few seven-star hotels in the world, and noted that the ATM in the lobby dispensed gold bars.

We also visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is the most imposing religious and national landmark in Abu Dhabi. It also is arguably one of the most important architectural treasures of contemporary UAE society and one of the most beautiful in the world. It was initiated by the late President HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who is fondly thought of as the father of the UAE. The 22,412 square-meter Mosque site is equivalent to five football fields, and no expense was spared in both the exterior and interior design and decoration.

We discovered another popular activity when we were invited to the camel races. We watched in amazement as gangling camels careened around a track. Each animal had a

computer strapped to its back, servDhabi. It was a tribute to the vision ing as a mechanical jockey. A few years of Denver’s leadership and voters that ago, “the old days” in the high-speed our reputation for fighting crime using history of Abu Dhabi, young Pakistani advanced techniques and interagency boys were employed as jockeys, but cooperation is now internationally the practice was abandoned in the face recognized. D of widespread outrage. The viewing stands were completely empty—the Mitch Morrissey has served as Denaudience raced their cars alongside the ver District Attorney since 2005. He is track honking horns and yelling at the internationally recognized for his expercamels. Wagering is against the law, tise in using DNA as a tool in solving as is camel doping. In fact, the largest crimes, and he regularly speaks on the section of the crime lab in Abu Dhabi topic. is where the testing is done for banned substances in racing camels.

T his center of great wealth has attracted hundreds of thousands of e x- p a t r i o t s f ro m a ro u n d the world. Mool’s f luenc y in Hindi came in handy on a daily basis. The core Arab ruling class is relatively small compared to the vast number of workers from other countries. A city and country of great opportunity, Abu Dhabi has welcomed this multicultural workforce and provides a tolerant environment. Most women dressed conser vatively, but there was a visible minority that had a Western look. Other religions are permitted and alcohol is allowed, although not widely available.

For the team from Denver, it was an honor to be asked to advise the prosecu- Mool Verma and Greggory LaBerge in front of the tors and scientists of Abu Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

The Abu Dhabi skyline.

May 2011 I The Docket 17

Finding Grounding in Morning Coffee

by Dav id L . E rick s on

T

here is a wonderful little coffee shop near our home in Evergreen.

I sometimes stop there for morning coffee. They have a limited breakfast and lunch menu and the staff is courteous and friendly. Not long ago, I stopped for coffee, and the exchange at the service counter went something like this: “I’d like a cup of coffee.”

“What kind would you like?”

“Just a cup of coffee.”

“We have all kinds,” the woman behind the counter said, gesturing to the large display board behind her. The board listed numerous varieties of coffee, cappuccino, lattes, and espressos—way too complicated for me this early in the morning.

“Just a small regular coffee please.”

She started, “We have Columbian, French Roast—” when I interrupted

18 The Docket I May 2011

with, “Just a small regular black coffee, please. Whatever is your coffee of the day.”

“I just thought you might want to step out of the box, for once,” was her reply.

“I’m already out of the box,” I said, somewhat defensively.

I sat down with my coffee and thought: I don’t need a special coffee to get me “out of the box.” My whole life is out of the box! When I have my “regular coffee, black” in the morning, it’s to get my life back in the box.

It’s the same, it’s consistent, and it

isn’t complicated. If today is anything like most of my days, it will be a double butter rum latte with whipped cream on top kind of day. So, please give me my regular coffee, black, and if it’s the coffee of the day then that’s OK. Then, I’ll be grounded again. D

Feel Like a Million Bucks Join

1

for CELEBRATING A CENTURY

ONE MILLION DOLLARS That’s how much The Wheels of Justice Cycling Team, sponsored by the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, raised for Denver’s Children’s Hospital in the team’s first five years. Our riders, sponsors, and volunteers all felt like a million bucks after working together to achieve that goal.

In 2011, please help us make an even bigger difference for the kids, doctors, and families at the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Join as a Wheels of Justice rider and enjoy terrific benefits, including cool team gear, weekend training rides, coaching sessions, and great events. Join as a Wheels of Justice sponsor and you’ll join Denver’s top law firms in receiving excellent publicity and benefits.

Thanks to our generous 2011 sponsors who have helped us raise more than $60,000 so far. Please join them!

May 2011 I The Docket 19

Into the

Grand

KACHINAS Spirits of the invisible forces of life, dwelling in the lofts of the San Francisco Peaks, their sacred home half the year In the kivas and the plazas spruce bough, deer horn, eagle feather, corn ear, turtle shell rattle, become visible the other half.

Greg and K.J. riding the tube on the Grand.

By Justice Greg Hobbs

G

randson K.J. and I say goodbye to the Navajo Teachers at Canyon de Chelly and head for the Hopi and the Grand. It’s the last week of July 2010, and we’re into the “monsoon” season on the Colorado River Plateau.

Ancient and weathered, the three Hopi mesas bear into the sky the longest continuously inhabited villages within the continental United States.

We pull into the only place visitors may stay—the Cultural Center on Second Mesa—and check in with our Hopi guide, Val Northrup.

She quickly says, “Hurry on over to Third Mesa; there’s a ‘Going Home’ dance at Hotevilla!”

Kachinas are sacred beings who live half the year in the San Francisco Peaks to the west above Flagstaff. The other half, they rotate dancing in the plazas of the various host villages. As a visitor, you can never be sure whether you will ever see a dance, but book a guide through the Cultural Center and you may be able to get in. Though you may have a chance to observe, you may never, ever take a photograph of them.

K.J. and I climb a wooden ladder, shaped of long poles and cross-bar limbs, onto a crowded rooftop. On the opposite

20 The Docket I May 2011

rooftop, children clutching miniature dancers carved of cottonwood root are playing a fleet game of tag. Below us, counter-clockwise, the Kachinas are circling! Drums beating, in perfect unison they dance, huffing and rattling, spruce boughs hanging from their woven belts. Women move around them clockwise, sprinkling corn pollen from small pouches onto glistening limbs.

Since March, they’ve been dancing for rain. In the recent weeks, their prayers have been answered. Dryland Hopi corn is firming into ears. Now, they joyously celebrate their going home to the peaks. The dance ends with a thrilling rush of wind—like a storm sweeping in—from the lungs of sonorous men whose masks once again permit the spirits to take residence within.

To the west, the San Francisco Peaks glow sunset crimson. Back at the Cultural Center, we feast on blue corn fry bread and lamb stew. The next morning, we walk with Val into sandstone bluffs etched with fantastic ancestral Pueblo petroglyphs on cliff faces. After winding back, forth, up, and down the three mesas by car, she leads us on foot into several ancient villages.

At Oraibi, a Hopi woodcar ver approaches K.J. with the corn maiden kachina that will be going home with him.

Carved of cottonwood root children play rooftop Hummingbird, Mouse Warrior, Corn Maiden, Wolf Circle countering circle, the women sprinkle corn pollen blessings on the perfect beat of their glistening limbs.

Northwest through Tuba City in the Navajo Nation, we journey through the Echo Cliffs and Cedar Tree Hills, dropping into the great rift the Colorado River fits its will to. Passing over Navajo Bridge, we overnight at Cliff Dweller’s Lodge beneath, the banded Vermilion Cliffs, earth-red and sky-pink.

K.J. and I strew our bunks with seven days worth of clothing and camping gear we each must compress into no more than 30 pounds. We have rented from our outfitter, Hatch River Expeditions, sleep kits complete with tent, ground cloth, sleeping bags, and pads.

This will be a 187-mile motorized raft run through the gut of the gorge to Whitmore Wash, where we’ll be lifted out by helicopter. There will be two rafts traveling together on this journey.

K.J. is six weeks short of 14. An agile, tall talker. Soon enough, everyone will think him 18. At the Lee’s Ferry launch site, we meet our guide and captain, J.P. Running, his crew man Spencer,

and eight other passengers who will start the trip here. Halfway down, we’ll pick up 16 more voyagers who will hike down from the South Rim Village to meet us at the Phantom Ranch Bridge.

Into the Grand, strangers become dunking buddies in less than half a day.

After loading our “night gear” onto the rafts, where it’s lashed under tautly drawn waterproof tarps, we smooth through open vistas on quiet water. A mountain sheep family grazes along river right. We visit.

Companions on the first half of our trip include a Belgian and a Frenchman, a newly married couple, crew man Spencer’s mother, and three older men who do an annual adventure trip together.

J.P. delivers basic safety instructions: No one on the boat any time without life vest fully buckled; you can ride the raft’s outrigger tubes if you like; for the really big slams, you must have your backs to the lashed bundle and your “butts to the board.” The “bath tub” low in the very prow of the boat qualifies as a prime place anytime. Or you can sit high in the “tea room” at the center of the boat, formed by a series of ingeniously packed gear and food boxes.

Mid-afternoon on the first day, most of us astride the tubes, we are baptized in a series of white water rapids called the Roaring Twenties. We shiver into a stiff headwind. Rain as hard as hail strikes us.

A cross-canyon blow inflates the tents we struggle to pin down like balloons. We run around helping each other pitch, and wait out a soaking rain. The crew prepares a steak dinner under an awning they’ve rigged over a blowtorch gas bottle, grill, and serving tables.

The next morning we wake to a cloud so low it hugs the river. Come launch time, it hasn’t lifted and we embark into a landscape as unfathomable as Conrad the able seaman wrote of Asian oceans in “Lord Jim” and “The Secret Sharer.” I can hear the river gurgling around our vessel and see nothing but J.P., standing in the motor mount well, feeling his way downstream on nothing but the intuition from two decades of Grand Canyon running.

Side hikes take us high above the

river to ancestral Pueblo ruins, petroglyphs, and a cave that pokes a hole through the sandstone wall just wide enough that you could slip yourself all the way through to oblivion. We travel a trail of embedded trilobites and gastropods up another slick rock tributary wash.

K.J. 's Corn Maiden in a Hopi cornfield.

That night, the stars come out and dance about our tentless sleep out on the beach. The trio of adventure men have adopted my grandson. The first, a retired Air Force pilot, the second a navigator who flew with this pilot many times, the third a cousin of the pilot. They tell K.J. exotic hunting and flying stories. In turn, he spins their yarns into various “Survivor” competition scenarios for a future Colorado River trip, if J.P. and Hatch will agree to it.

Upland rains have turned the Little Colorado from turquoise to a churning reddish chocolate brown, the native load-bearing color characteristic of the mainstream Colorado. Despite the sediment stopper-effect of the Glen Canyon Dam upstream of Lee’s Ferry, flash floods continue to make the Colorado the mud man it wants to be.

We glide past the sacred Hopi salt mines on river left just below the confluence. From last month’s Navajo Teacher’s workshop on the South Rim, I recall one of our instructors saying how culturally rich this stretch of the river is. Navajos, as well as Hopis and ancestral Pueblo people before them, collected salt from these seeping walls. Tribal elders, herbalists, medicine men, and women of 11 Colorado River tribes honor the canyon’s blessings.

Opposite the Tanner Trail, we climb

high above the north side of the river to ancestral Pueblo ruins that look out on floodplain cornfields of a thousand years ago. A boulder shaped like a regal arm chair carries the adornment of ancient symbols.

We have a long wait at Phantom Ranch for the hikers who will join our voyage. It’s blazing hot. Luckily, there’s a clear cold pool in Bright Angel Creek that keeps us sitting cool. The hikers straggle in, exhausted, some of them nine hours en route from the South Rim, dangerously dehydrated and favoring injured knees. I think, what a hard way and what a loss! The six-and-a-half days we will have on the river barely seems enough and our new friends have only half of that.

We welcome and minister to them.

A family of four, including a teenage girl and boy, join our boat. Truly, now our ark bears the ages. We enjoy seeing the three young people revel in the smack of the waves and hearing them holler gleefully as they jump from promontories into side pools of crystal clear water.

The next three days are a glory of running the really big rapids, including the granddaddy dilly of them all, Lava Falls. We have daytime side hikes to Elves Chasm and Deer Creek Falls, but we cannot put in for a hike up Havasu Creek because of a flash flood pouring through that drainage.

A few at a time, we board the helicopter at Whitmore Wash, for the hop out to the Bar 10 Ranch on the North Rim. Saying goodbye to each other, we fly light planes back to Lee’s Ferry or Las Vegas.

Crossing back on Navajo Bridge, K.J. and I head home to Colorado, stopping off at brother Will and sister-in-law Jean’s place in Durango. They’ve run the river 10 times in their own oar boat! If you want to preview or relive your own run into the Grand, read Will’s young adult novels “Downriver” and “River Thunder.” D

May 2011 I The Docket 21

2011 Henry Hall Memorial Golf Tournament

The 2011 Henry Hall Memorial Golf Tournamentttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Price is $125 per player and includes a light breakfast, lunch, greens fees, range balls, and cart.

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22 The Docket I May 2011

June 6 Registration, breakfast, and range balls start at 6:30 a.m., followed by a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start.

Around the Horn: A Denver Sports Update for Lawyers

by N icole M. M und t

A

s lawyers, it’s a safe generalization that each of us thrives, to some degree, on competition. Not just competition—but winning (insert Charlie Sheen quote here). For many of us, the intellectual competition that comes with the multitude of hours spent arguing with opposing counsel, taking depositions, drafting in-your-face motions, or owning a courtroom, simply isn’t enough. We’re competition junkies, and the intellectual stuff, as fun as it can be, doesn’t make us sweat like some of us need to sweat.

Fortunately, we live in Colorado, where organized activities abound, no matter the season. I grew up in a household where being “bored” was unacceptable and any complaints about boredom were met with a simple response from my parents to “go outside and play.” As adults, boredom is rarely a concept in our lives, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make more time to get outside and stay active. Who knows, it might even make the time we spend inside more tolerable.

Spring is a great season to get involved, whether it’s training for a triathlon or joining a softball team. Here is a sampling of some of the team sports opportunities happening around town: CityWide Sports (denvergov.org/ parksandrecreation; select Recreation tab; then select CityWide Sports). CityWide Sports organizes adult teams for softball and flag football. Their softball league, “Softball in the City,” has more than 10,000 participants, and leagues run from March to October, with games taking place at a dozen different fields around the city. The flag football league has spring, fall, and winter seasons. Sign up for CityWide’s newsletter for yearround league information.

Denver Sport and Social Club (socialandsportsclub.com; select Denver

from the city dropdown). Denver Sport and Social Club offers leagues in billiards, dodgeball, golf, football, soccer, bowling, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, basketball, kickball, water polo, and more.

Its website lists the many “free agents” who are looking for teams to join.

Denver Skeeball League (denverskeeballleague.com). Yes, seriously. And this isn’t like the local fair either. This is competition. Teams are guaranteed six weeks of play, and the Sweet 16 Tournament takes place in weeks seven and eight. Breckenridge Brewery hosts the league, and teams play either Monday or Wednesday nights. Each league is capped at 60 players, comprising 20 teams.

KIFAC (kifac.org). KIFAC, the acronym for “Kick In For A Cause,” is a great local organization, founded in 2003 by a group of friends looking to start a laid back kickball league, while also contributing a portion of their proceeds to charity.

Eight years later, KIFAC is booming, offering leagues for kickball and bowling, as well as many other events, including Oktoberfest, the Flip Flop Ball, the Festivus Crawl, and a Masquerade Ball. KIFAC emphasizes fun over competition and encourages everyone to have a good time by including beer at the weekly games.

The organization has been so successful, most leagues are offered almost every weeknight. Kickball games are held at City Park, and the Bowling League takes place at Moe’s Original BBQ and Bowling on South Broadway. You also may register a full team or as an individual.

Spor ts Monster (spor tsmonster.net; select Denver from the city dropdown). Sports Monster is an organization providing team sports leagues in a number of cities across the country.

Their Denver organization offers yearround opportunities to participate in different sports such as basketball, bowling, dodgeball, football, kickball, soccer, softball, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, and

wiffleball. The leagues are held at Dicks Sporting Goods Park.

So, whether its water polo, wiffleball, skeeball, or some of the more conventional options, there are many ways to get involved and to be as competitive as you want with your sport of choice. You don’t need to put together an entire team, either. Most leagues allow you to register as an individual and indicate the sport you’re looking to play.

There are always teams looking for a few more players, and it’s a great way to get out and meet new people. If nothing else, you can chalk it up to networking and client recruitment (and maybe even bill it under “marketing”). It certainly beats the heck out of joining a Leads Group. D

Lawyers League Basketball 2011 Championship Results In A League, Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons defended its title, and for the second straight year defeated McKenna Long & Aldridge. It was a close and competitive game throughout.

In B League, the Tortfeasors defeated Team KKO, also in a tight game.

2011 Lawyers Softball League Games are from June 4 to Aug. 13. This is a relaxed, co-ed league; there are no umpires, and balls and strikes are not called. Games are at 11 a.m. on Saturdays at Cranmer Park (2nd and Bellaire). This is a great way to enjoy the Colorado summers. Interested team captains should contact Jack Tanner at jtanner@ fwlaw.com or (303) 894-4495.

May 2011 I The Docket 23

24 The Docket I May 2011

May 2011 I The Docket 25

Legal

AFFAIRS GOOD THINGS Professionals in Workers’ Compensation (PWC) held their annual awards banquet on March 4. The award for Outstanding Respondent Attorney was presented to Paul Krueger of Ritsema & Lyon. The Outstanding Claimant Attorney award went to John Sbarbaro of Law Office of O’Toole & Sbarbaro.

The Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI) presented its first-ever Inclusiveness Awards on March 14 at CLI’s bi-annual Dean’s Diversity Dinner at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Larry Theis, chair of the Executive Committee of Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, was selected for the CLI Leadership Award.

Theis Nicole R. Ament, a real estate shareholder at the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, recently was appointed to the Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver Board of Directors. As a board member, Ament will use her background in real estate to help the nonprofit achieve its goals.

Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons, LLP is pleased to announce that Edward A. Gleason has become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Fellowship Gleason in the college is extended to those experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility, and collegiality.

Faegre & Benson partner David Stark has been appointed by Colorado Chief Justice Michael Bender to the

newly formed Commission on the Legal Profession. Stark will serve as the chair of the working group on the relationship between the legal profession (judiciary, bar, and legal academies) and the community. The working group will focus on access to justice, delivery of justice, and education of the public.

Sherman & Howard announces that Jason Miller, an associate in the firm’s litigation practice, has been named to the Miller City of Lakewood’s sevenmember Board of Appeals.

Ashley B. Wingfield, an associate at the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, recently was appointed to the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado Board of Directors. As a board member, Wingfield will help organize educational, fundraising and recreational events as well as contribute to policy initiatives.

A family connection to brain injury inspired her to give back to the Colorado brain injury community.

Baker & Hostetler LLP is pleased to announce that Holli L. Hartman has been named to the Corporate Advisory Board of the Cancer League of Colorado.

Hartman specializes in employment law.

CHANGES Reutzel and Associates is pleased to announce that Tara L. Sakraida has rejoined the firm as of counsel. The Firm’s practice Sakraida continues to emphasize real estate and land use law.

Akerman Senterfitt announced the expansion of its intellectual property practice with the addition of four attorneys in the firm’s Denver office. George

Matava and John Burke will be joining the firm as shareholders, Darla Graff joins as of counsel, and Kelly Lusk joins as an associate.

Patrick Ryan has moved in-house to Google, Inc. as policy counsel, Open Internet, in Mountain View. Patrick is currently Ryan commuting and continues to teach as an adjunct professor in the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at CU-Boulder.

The Legal Resolution Center (LRC) is pleased to announce Hon. Art Kafrissen as the newest judge to join LRC. Kafrissen Kafrissen is a former judge with the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas of the First Judicial District. He will be based in LRC’s Aspen office.

The Denver office of Kutak Rock LLP recently hired Kristin Caid, of counsel, in the public finance group where she will be assisting clients as bond counsel and underCaid writer’s counsel on public finance transactions. In addition, the firm hired Jack Luellen, of counsel, to join the commercial litigation team, advising Luellen clients in the areas of oil and gas, natural resources, and energy.

Sherman & Howard announces that Matt Walker has joined the firm’s Denver office as an associate in the ERISA and employee benefits practice.

Walker brings four years of diverse experience in the practice of law, having served most recently as labor counsel

If you are a Denver Bar attorney member and you’ve moved, been promoted, hired an associate, taken on a partner, received a promotion or award, or begun service on a new board, we’d love to hear from you. Talks, speeches, CLE presentations, and political announcements, due to their sheer number, cannot be included. In addition, The Docket cannot print notices of honors determined by other publications (e.g., Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, etc.) again due to volume. Notices are printed at no cost but must be submitted in writing and are subject to editing and space available.

Send all notices to Kate Mills at kmills@cobar.org by the 5th day of the month.

26 The Docket I May 2011

to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions on the Committee on Education and Labor.

Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce the addition of Michael Strand as an associate to its real estate, environmental, energy, and finance team.

Strand’s practice encompasses counseling clients on the entire spectrum of real estate transactions—from acquisition, financing, entitlement, and development to design and construction and then leasing, marketing, and sale.

The law firm of Brown & Hulbert, LLC is pleased and proud to announce that Spencer J. Crona, formerly of Wade, Ash, Woods, Hill & Farley, P.C., has become of Crona counsel to the firm. Crona’s practice will continue to emphasize estate and trust litigation, guardianships

and conservatorships, and estate and trust administration.

M i le s & Pe te rs i s pleased to announce that Elizabeth Merritt has become a senior associate at the firm. Her Merritt practice will continue to focus on regulatory compliance, business planning, provider contracting, reimbursement issues, and commercial transactions.

Additionally, Robert Magouirk and Peggy E. Kozal have joined the firm as associates. Magouirk will focus on transactional matMagouirk ters, regulatory compliance issues, and administrative and licensing matters.

Kozal will focus on appeals, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, financial fraud Kozal de fense, institutional

Troubled by Rude and Unprofessional Attorneys?

The following lawyers are willing to take calls on a confidential basis, for guidance, tips, and strategies for dealing with opposing counsel.

Hal B. Warren: (303) 654-6116 John Baker: (303) 953-6803 Howard Rosenberg: (303) 871-6290 Mark Fogg: (303) 825-2700 Sponsored by the DBA Peer Professionalism Assistance Committee

licensing, and regulatory compliance matters.

Paul Thompson has joined Dorsey as a partner in the corporate group. He was a partner at Holme Roberts & Owen.

Greg Tamkin, partner, has been promoted to head of the Dorsey Denver office. Tucker Trautman stepped down from this position after five years of leadership.

Sherman & Howard announces that David Frommell has joined the firm’s Denver office as an associate in the litigation practice.

Frommell brings prior experience as both a lawyer and an engineer.

BRICKS & MORTAR Reilly Pozner, LLP, a full-service litigation and trial firm, has moved to 1900 16th St., Ste. 1700, Denver, CO 80202. The firm’s emails, phone, and fax numbers will remain the same.

DENVER BAR ASSOCIATION

PLACEMENT SERVICE l

Full-Time

l

Temp

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Time-To-Hire

Attorneys Secretaries l Paralegals l Receptionists l Accounting l Administrators l Office Services l

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Serving the Legal Community since 1986 Mev Parsons / Barb Allen (303) 894-0014

NOW PLACING ATTORNEYS!!!

May 2011 I The Docket 27

Dates on the

DOCKET DBA EVENTS

FOR THE PUBLIC

All DBA meetings are scheduled at 1900 Grant St., Ste. 900, Denver, unless otherwise noted. Call Melissa Nicoletti, (303) 824-5321, to schedule committee meetings, so they will appear in this calendar.

To volunteer for the DBA Public Legal Education programs or for more information, unless otherwise indicated, contact Meghan Bush at (303) 824-5303.

May 3

Lawline 9 — 4–6:30 p.m.

Denver Access to Justice Committee Meeting Noon–1:30 p.m.

Call Meghan Bush, (303) 824-5303.

May 4

Docket Committee Meeting Noon–1 p.m.

Call Sara Crocker, (303) 824-5347.

May 5

Democracy Education Noon–1:30 p.m.

Call Meghan Bush, (303) 824-5303.

May 10

Waterman Fund Meeting Noon–1:30 p.m.

Call Janet Bauer, (303) 824-5319.

May 11

DBA/YLD Executive Council Meeting 6–7:30 p.m.

Call Amy Sreenen, (303) 824-5311.

May 12

DBA Board of Trustees 7:30–9:15 a.m.

Call Dana Collier Smith, (303) 824-5318.

May 17

Community Action Network Monthly Meeting Noon–1 p.m.

Call Kate Mills, (303) 824-5312.

May 4

Legal Night At El Centro De San Juan Diego 2830 Lawrence St. 5:30–7 p.m.

Call (303) 295-9470.

Lawline 9— 4–6:30 p.m.

May 19

Collections Clinic Denver City and County Building 1437 Bannock St., Room 164 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

May 25

Bankruptcy Clinic U.S. Bankruptcy Court 721 19th St. 1:30–3 p.m.

Lawline 9 — 4–6:30 p.m.

May 10

Bankruptcy Clinic U.S. Bankruptcy Court 721 19th St. 1:30–3 p.m.

May 11

Lawline 9— 4–6:30 p.m.

May 17

Small Claims Clinic Denver City and County Building 1437 Bannock St., Room 164 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

Pro Se Family Law Clinic Office of Economic Development 1200 Federal Blvd.

Room 1018 5:30–7 p.m.

Call (720) 944-2594.

Legal Night at Mi Casa 360 Acoma St. 5:30–7 p.m.

Call (303) 573-1302.

May 18

Pro Se Divorce Clinic 1437 Bannock St. Courtroom 22 Noon–1:30 p.m.

Join a Committee!

If you’re interested in joining a committee listed here, call (303) 860-1115 with questions. For a full list of DBA committees, visit denbar.org.

Write for

The Docket DBA members are encouraged to send story ideas, photos, tips, and fun articles for The Docket Committee’s consideration. Our goal is to have a newsletter that’s an outlet for prose by Denver attorneys, featuring stories about members and about matters of interest to our members. We want to include both the sincere and the satirical! Send member announcements, ideas, or content to Editor Sara Crocker at scrocker@cobar.org.

All meetings are scheduled at 1900 Grant St., Ste. 900, Denver, unless otherwise noted. Activities for the Denver Bar Association are listed on this page. Call Melissa Nicoletti, (303) 824-5321, to schedule committee meetings, so they will appear in this calendar.

28 The Docket I May 2011

DBA Member Appreciation Week Monday, June 6

is June 6–11

v Henry Hall Golf Tournament 7:30 a.m. at Inverness Golf Club. Proceeds support Metro Volunteer Lawyers. v “Diversity” Complimentary, one hour CLE program starting at noon and presented by Paul Chan, CBA President. This program is available live and webcasted. Lunch is provided at no cost to attendees.

Tuesday, June 7 v “Mentoring” Complimentary, one hour CLE program starting at noon and presented by David Masters, Incoming CBA President. This program is available live only. Lunch is provided at no cost to attendees. v DBA Annual Party, 5:30 p.m. at Hotel Monaco.

Wednesday, June 8 v “New Rule on File Retention and other Recent Changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct” Complimentary, one hour CLE program starting at noon and presented by Chip Mortimer, Office of Attorney Regulation. This program is available live and webcasted. Lunch is provided at no cost to attendees.

Thursday, June 9 v “Information Overload? Tips Manage Online News and Information” Complimentary, one hour CLE program starting at 9 a.m. and presented by Alli Gerkman, CBA-CLE Manager of Online Content and Development. This program is available live and webcasted. Breakfast is provided at no cost to attendees. v “Future of the Legal Profession” Member Mixer with Ignite-style presentations, 5:30 p.m. at CBACLE, 1900 Grant St., Suite 300. Food and beverages will be provided at no cost to attendees.

Friday, June 10 v “Unbundled Legal Services: Ethical Considerations and Billing Practices” Complimentary, one hour CLE program starting at noon and presented by Adam Espinosa, Office of Attorney Regulation. This program is available live and webcasted. Lunch is provided at no cost to attendees. v Paper shredding and electronics recycling from 4 to 6 p.m. in the parking lot east of the DBA offices.

There is no cost for this event. However, a donation of $2 per box or electronic item is requested with a 10 box and five item limit. All donations go to Metro Volunteer Lawyers.

Saturday, June 11 v The DBA Community Action Network’s Kickball Tournament to benefit Children’s Outreach Project, at the University of Denver.

RSVP for all events by emailing lunches@cobar.org or calling (303) 860-1115, ext. 727.

May 2011 I The Docket 29

Picture

THIS

Recognizing Pro Bono Attorneys and law firms from the Denver, Boulder and Adams/Broomfield Bar Associations were honored for their commitment and completion of 50 hours of pro bono service on April 8. Five Colorado Supreme Court Justices—Chief Justice Michael Bender, Nathan B. Coats, Allison H. Eid, Greg Hobbs, and Nancy E. Rice—were on hand to congratulate attorneys who completed the suggested amount of service to the indigent or to organizations that serve them. Photos by Jamie Cotten.

Lindsay Unruh and Katie Roush of Reilly Pozner pose with the Justices and their certificate recognizing the firm’s pro bono service.

James C. Coyle, chief deputy regulation counsel for the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, speaks while the DBA’s Metro Volunteer Lawyers Executive Director Dianne Van Voorhees looks on.

30 The Docket I May 2011

Chief Justice Michael Bender speaks during the ceremony.

DBA Happenings Exploring Diversity in the Legal Profession The Legal Inclusiveness & Diversity Summit brought approximately 200 people to the University of Denver to learn about diversity in the legal profession. The summit, expanded this year to one and a half days, was held March 14 and 15 at the Sturm College of Law. It featured five strands focused on leadership, inclusiveness, balanced hours, professional development, and diversity and inclusiveness research and training. The Center for Legal Inclusiveness presents the summit annually. Photos by Jamie Cotten.

Leading national diversity and inclusiveness expert Arin Reeves presented on how to lead diversity, inclusiveness, and productive skepticism.

Attorneys (from left) Michael Connelly, Rich Baer, and Michael Spencer served on a general counsel panel at the summit.

Glenwood Wins State Mock Trial Glenwood Springs High School’s Team A won the Colorado Bar Association’s State Mock Trial Tournament, defeating last year’s state champ, Lakewood High School. Twenty-four teams traveled from across the state to the Adams County Justice Center in Brighton for the annual competition, held on March 11 and 12. Colorado Supreme Court Justice Alex Martinez presided over the final round. Glenwood will compete in the national mock trial tournament May 5 to 7 in Phoenix.

Students from Lakewood High School Team A and Glenwood Springs High School Team A faced off in the final round of the state mock trial competition.

Glenwood Springs Team A will compete in the national mock trial tournament this month.

May 2011 I The Docket 31

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