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DENVER – The Denver office of national employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart announced the addition of four immigration attorneys from regional law firm Holland & Hart on Wednesday.

Angelica Ochoa and Christopher Thomas joined the law firm as shareholders. Ochoa has a broad employment law practice with a specialization in obtaining non-immigrant work visas and employment-based immigrant visas for management, professionals and specialized skills employees. She is a 2001 graduate from the University of Michigan Law School. Thomas focuses his practice on employment immigration law. He also serves on the boards of the Latin American Research and Service Agency and the Denver chapter of religious conviction organization J. Reuben Clark Law Society. Thomas received his juris doctor from Tulane University in 1997.

John Combs, who joined as of counsel, has a number of years of experience in employment based permanent residency applications with a specialization in the initial labor certification process. He learned his law degree from the University of Idaho in 1983.

Jocelyn Campanaro, who worked in Holland & Hart’s Washington D.C. and Denver offices, is an associate with a practice focused on complex commercial litigation and labor and employment disputes. She’s also specialized in representing professional sports teams and athletes on immigration matters, including players in the National Hockey League, a leading team in the Central Hockey League, World Champion cutting horse riders and competitors in the equine industry.

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DENVER – Two Qwest attorneys were accepted into the first Latina Executive Leadership Program, a joint initiative from the Hispanic National Bar Association and Association of Corporate Counsel designed to address challenges unique to Latina lawyers.

Gina Casias and Meshach Rhoades will be part of an estimated 50 Latina HNBA members from the private sector and several chief legal officers collaborating on financial and case management education while benefitting from networking opportunities. Also in the program is Faegre & Benson Partner Regina Rodriguez, reported in Law Week Online on Aug. 30.

Casias is corporate counsel at Qwest and has practice labor and employment law there for almost ten years and is actively involved in Denver youth nonprofit La Raza Youth as a mentor. Rhoades, a senior attorney, practices telecommunications litigation. She is immediate past president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association and a current regional president of the HNBA.

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DENVER — Attorney Ronald Lawrence Roberts of Monument was ordered disbarred last week, with the sanction to take effect Sept. 26.

Roberts, whose firm address is in Monument, was found to have converted $4,000 in client funds. His clients, the Siecks, gave him a check to pay arbitration costs to the American Arbitration Association, but Roberts cashed the check and kept the money. Roberts never scheduled arbitration for his clients, didn’t return the money, and didn’t respond to his clients’ phone calls and e-mails. Roberts also didn’t respond to the regulatory complaint filed against him.

Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero wrote:

“Respondent entirely abdicated his professional responsibilities in his representation of the Siecks. Respondent’s failure to respond to the Siecks after their tireless efforts to contact him, his continuing failure to return funds that are not rightfully his, and his non-participation in the disciplinary process are disquieting. Such misconduct reflects very poorly on the legal profession. In light of Respondent’s misconduct and the need to protect the public from future such misconduct, the Court concludes Respondent should be disbarred.”

Ronald Lawrence Roberts

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

The active of typing on a laptop computer is so disruptive that 4th District Judge Deborah Grohs rejected a request from a newspaper to blog live during a first-degree murder trial.

Colorado Springs Gazette courts reporter John Ensslin reported Tuesday that Grohs’ denial is the first he’s had in his 17-month tenure covering the district, which covers El Paso and Teller counties.

As Ensslin reported:

I had hopes of live blogging from the first-degree murder trial of Derek Lee Hernandez this week. Alas, it is not to be. …

I had requested to have a photographer in the courtroom and also asked if I could bring my laptop computer in order to file periodic reports on the trial. …

“Typing on a key board in the courtroom, whether it is on a laptop computer or a cell phone is prohibited,” Grohs wrote in a one-page ruling. “The act of typing is disruptive and takes away from the dignity of the court proceedings.”

Ensslin also reports that he’ll still blog during the trial, but it won’t be live from the courtroom.

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DENVER — A hearing board on Tuesday dismissed a complaint brought the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel against 18th Judicial District Magistrate Patrick D. Butler. The order to dismiss was a rare occurrence; attorney regulation cases that reach a hearing usually result in a sanction of some kind.

Regulation counsel accused Butler of violating the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct by answering “no” to a question on a 20th Judicial District judgeship application in 2009 that asked if he had ever been professionally disciplined, when in fact he had received a private admonition for an undisclosed incident in 2004. When the discrepancy between his application and disciplinary record was pointed out, Butler said he did not recall getting the admonition and thought he had avoided sanction by taking an ethics class. Regulation counsel said Butler was reckless not to double-check whether he had been sanctioned.

The case went to hearing on June 22 before a three-person hearing board, headed by Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero and also including attorneys Maureen Cain and David Herrera. Butler was represented by Craig Truman; the attorney for the regulation office was Charles Mortimer.

On Tuesday, Lucero’s office issued the order to dismiss, which reads in part:

“The Hearing Board concludes that Respondent’s inaccurate response to the query, while unseemly and inept, was not the product of an intentional effort to mislead the Judicial Nominating Commission. Nor does the evidence clearly or convincingly evince a reckless disregard for the truth such that we can find it deceitful or dishonest. Accordingly, the Hearing Board dismisses the People’s complaint.”

Butler, who has been an 18th Judicial District magistrate since April 2009, spent the previous two decades with the law firm Lamm & Butler. The 20th Judicial District judgeship that he applied for eventually went to Thomas Mulvahill.

Patrick D. Butler

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Robert Walter Kiesnowski Jr., Cynthia J. Kowert and Ted C. Tow III are finalists for the 17th Judicial District Court judgeship being vacated by the Hon. John T. Bryan, who is retiring.

The finalists were selected by the 17th Judicial District Nominating Commission.

Gov. Bill Ritter’s office provided brief biographies of each of the nominees. They are published below. Under Colorado’s judicial merit-selection system, Ritter has 15 days to appoint one to the position.

Robert Walter Kiesnowski, Jr. of Commerce City currently works as in-house counsel for the Denver Police Protective Association and is “of counsel” to Worstell & Kiesnowski. Mr. Kiesnowski was also in private practice where he practiced criminal defense primarily as alternate defense counsel. Mr. Kiesnowski earned his B.S. and B.A. from Regis College (1987) and his J.D. from the University of Puget Sound School of Law, n/k/a Seattle University School of Law (1989).

Cynthia J. Kowert of Brighton currently works as a Chief Trial Deputy in the District Attorney’s Office for the 17th Judicial District where she is currently the Chief of the Child Victim Unit and the Juvenile Unit. Ms. Kowert was in private practice after passing the Colorado Bar in Ft. Collins for approximately a year and a half before joining the District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Kowert earned her B.S. from Texas Woman’s University (1982) and her J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law (1989).

Ted C. Tow III of Northglenn is currently the Executive Director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council providing centralized prosecution-related services to the member District Attorneys of Colorado. Prior to this position Mr. Tow served as a Deputy District Attorney in the 17th Judicial District, a civil litigator and as a manager in the corporate sector. Mr. Tow earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas (1989) and his J.D. from Wayne State University Law School. (1994).

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DENVER – The Denver District Attorney’s office won’t prosecute an online identity theft case involving a 24-year-old Denver woman’s stolen Facebook photos that were used on several online dating websites, reports Dayle Cedars from 7NEWS.

Under Colorado statute, criminal impersonation is when one knowingly assumes a false or fictitious identity and acts with the intent to gain a benefit or to injure or defraud another. Likewise, criminal identity theft involves “the personal identifying information, financial identifying information, or financial device of another without permission or lawful authority to obtain cash, credit, property, services, or any other thing of value or to make a financial payment.” Personal and financial identifying information under the statute includes items such as birth certificates, social security numbers and credit card information, but does not cover photos posted online.

“There are cases that get presented to us and you look at it and you say, ‘This is wrong,’” Denver DA spokesperson Lynn Kimbrough told 7NEWS. “It just seems wrong, but it may still not rise to that level where we need to reach where we can file it criminally.”

The woman, whose identity has been withheld and is known only as “Stacy,” plans to file a civil lawsuit against the 46-year-old woman in Aurora accused of stealing the photos and using them on dating websites such as Plenty of Fish, Dallas Singles and Sugar Daddies.

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Joseph Ross Kirwan III of Edwards and Jonathan Bruce Pototsky of Glenwood Springs are finalists for an associate county court judgeship. One of the two will succeed the Hon. Jason Jovanovich, who decided against standing for voter retention in November.

Kirwan is a private-practice attorney in the Law Offices of Thomas Silverman in Glenwood Springs, according to Colorado Supreme Court records. Pototsky is a deputy district attorney in the 9th Judicial District, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The 9th Judicial District Nominating Commission selected the finalists at a meeting Monday in the Garfield Combined Courthouse.

Under Colorado’s judicial merit-selection system, Gov. Bill Ritter has until Sept. 15 to make the final selection. Comments regarding any of the nominees may be sent via e-mail to the governor at judicial.appointments@state.co.us

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Gov. Bill Ritter continues his pattern of giving lower-court judges greater court responsibility.

He has appointed three new judges – two district court judges in the 4th Judicial District and one county court judge in Douglas County. Two of the judges are current magistrates; the third is a private-practice attorney.

· Lawrence R. Bowling of Castle Rock succeeds retiring Douglas County Judge Michelle Marker effective Jan. 1.

· Timothy J. Schutz of Monument succeeds retiring District Court Judge J. Patrick Kelly in the 4th Judicial District effective Oct. 31.

· Barbara L. Hughes of Colorado Springs succeeds retiring District Court Judge Timothy Simmons in the 4th Judicial District effective Dec. 31. The 4th Judicial District serves El Paso and Teller counties.

Bowling is currently a magistrate in Douglas County and has served as a magistrate in the 18th Judicial District – which covers Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties – since 2006. Prior to that, he was an assistant county attorney in Jefferson County, an associate with Quade, Fontana and Bonin, and a deputy district attorney in the 18th Judicial District. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado Technical College in 1981 and his law degree from the University of Denver in 1993.

Schutz is a founding member of the firm Hanes & Schutz, which was formed in 1992. Before that, he was an associate with Holland & Hart. He received his bachelor’s degree from Moorhead State University in 1984 and his law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1987.

Hughes has served as a district court magistrate in the 4th Judicial District’s Probate Division since 2000. Prior to that, she was an attorney with Colorado Legal Services in Colorado Springs, an attorney with Pikes Peak Legal Services in Colorado Springs, a law clerk in the 4th Judicial District and an attorney with Zuckerman and Kleinman. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and her law degree from the University of Colorado in 1988.

For a county court judge, the initial term of office is a provisional term of two years. Thereafter, if retained by the voters, county court judges serve four-year terms at an annual salary of $123,067.

For a district court judge, the initial term of office is a provisional term of two years. Thereafter, if retained by the voters, district court judges serve six-year terms at an annual salary of $128,598.

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Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey on Monday appointed 22nd Judicial District Court Judge Douglas S. Walker as the district’s chief judge, effective Oct. 1. The district covers Montezuma and Dolores counties.

Walker succeeds Chief Judge Sharon L. Hansen, who was appointed to the bench April 1, 1986, and has served as the chief judge since 1995. Walker is the only other district judge in the 22nd; another is expected to appointed soon by Gov. Bill Ritter.

“I would like to thank Chief Judge Hansen for her years of dedication to serving the people of the Twenty-Second Judicial District,” Mullarkey said in a statement. “I am certain Judge Walker will follow in Judge Hansen’s footsteps by providing solid, effective leadership for court operations in southwestern Colorado.”

Chief judges serve as their districts’ administrative heads. They are responsible for appointing the district administrator, chief probation officer and clerks of the court. They also assist in the personnel, financial and case management duties of the district.

Walker was appointed to the district bench in July 2007. Before his appointment, he served as a district and county court magistrate for 10 years in the 22nd and 6th judicial districts. Prior to his judicial service, he was in private practice for 20 years, 13 of which included serving as the prosecutor in the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Court.

The judge was the subject of a Law Week Colorado news story for ordering a convicted murderer to his sentencing against his wishes. Ignacio Rael was shocked twice with a Taser and forcibly extracted from his cell. Neither Mullarkey nor the Colorado Judicial Branch has publicly commented on Walker’s order except to say that the branch supported the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department, which carried out the Tasering. The sheriff has said he didn’t see the need for Rael, who missed much of his trial, to appear at the sentencing.

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