Denver-based Petroflow Energy announced as part of its general and administrative reduction plan terminations of corporate management, including Louis Schott, the vice president of land and the company’s in-house counsel.
Others include its president and chief operating officer Sandy Andrew, senior vice president Kevin Davis and corporate controller Sally Fletchinger. Their last day will be March 31, 2010. Their severance payments, as part of their contracts, add up to a collective amount of approximately $1.7 million.
View the full press release here.

According to a recently released survey, corporate law departments will hire more for 2010.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2009 Chief Legal Officer Survey Results found that more CLOs are planning to hire than last year. Most plan to hire those who can perform a combination of commoditized work and specialists for more complex work. The survey results also reported the increase of use of paralegals, contract lawyers and administrative staff.

Deborah Shinbein has joined Denver-based Clarity Digital Group, parent company of Examiner.com, as vice president of business development and general counsel. Shinbein was an attorney at Faegre & Benson, where she focused on intellectual property transactions and Internet legal issues. Shinbein was also previously an attorney and director of business development for Disney Interactive Media Group.
View the full press release here.

By Allie Winter, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Gov. Bill Ritter announced that Craig Welling will step in as chief legal counsel. Welling succeeds Trey Rogers, who is leaving his position to return to private practice, effective March 1.
Welling is not new to the Ritter team; he has worked as senior deputy counsel for the last three years.
Rogers has served as Ritter’s top lawyer since the governor took office. He will re-join Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons as a partner, the position he held prior to joining the governor’s office.
“Trey has been a strong member of my administration from the start,” Gov. Ritter said. “I will miss his daily advice and counsel, and I know he will do well in this next chapter of his career. I am also looking forward to working with Craig, who is an extremely talented attorney, in his new role.” Welling is also a Rothgerber alum; he worked as an associate with the firm from 2001 until 2007 before joining the Ritter administration.

Press Release Trey Rogers (00771929-2)[1]

By Alicia McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Lakewood-based Einstein Noah Restaurant Group appointed Rhonda Parish as its new chief legal officer and corporate secretary.
Parish was formerly the executive vice president, CLO and secretary of Denny’s Corp. and its predecessor companies from 1998 to 2008. She was also the assistant general counsel to Wal-Mart Stores and to the magazine Corporate Counsel.
Parish succeeds Jill Sisson, who announced her retirement in August 2009 and remained available to the company until a successor was named.

View the full press release here.

Above the Law reports that law firms can now see the Association of Corporate Counsel Value Index, which was created to help develop a better relationship between in-house counsel and their outside lawyers.
Law firms will be able to see their own reviews for a limited time.

Photo by Jamie Cotten
Jim Mandel

By Ali McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO
“I am the face of medical marijuana!” Jim Mandel cried out during his testimony to the Senate Health & Human Services committee while holding his medical marijuana card above his head.
But Mandel wasn’t the average medical marijuana activist at the lectern.
Mandel was a real estate attorney with Denver firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for 20 years and worked for Vail Resorts as a general counsel and senior vice president of commercial real estate. The currently semi-retired real estate legal consultant uses medical marijuana for multiple sclerosis, which he was diagnosed with last year. He told the panel that he was prescribed medical marijuana by his neurologist for muscle cramps and pain.
“Part of the reasons we support his bill is if you don’t support reasonable regulation, you get unreasonable regulation,” Mandel told Law Week Colorado.
Sponsored by Sens. Chris Romer and Nancy Spence, SB-109 was the first successful move towards medical marijuana regulation with committee approval of 6-1.
The bill will require a more “legitimate” relationship between medical marijuana patients and their physicians, in response to the increase in registrants.

Editor’s Note: Premium subscribers of State Bill Colorado, a sister service of Law Week Colorado, can listen to this testimony by clicking this player. Not yet a subscriber? Read about features and benefits of our service here.

Loretta Martinez has been appointed the new general counsel of Metropolitan State College of Denver. She will be serving as the chief legal adviser to the president and board of trustees.

Martinez was previously general counsel for the Colorado State University.

Before CSU, Martinez, a Harvard University administrative fellow, was legal counsel and general secretary to Colorado College in Colorado Springs before joining Colorado State this year. She has also served as a staff attorney in the University Counsel’s Office at the University of Colorado and at the Office of the General Counsel at Harvard University.

LAW WEEK COLORADO
Colorado Ethics Watch’s senior counsel, Luis Toro, has been promoted to director, effective immediately. Toro replaces Chantell Taylor, who has accepted the position of general counsel for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Public Interest Network, based in Denver.
“I am proud of what we have accomplished and pleased to be passing the baton to Luis, a brilliant attorney who will continue the same hard-hitting legal advocacy for which Ethics Watch is best known,” Taylor said in a press release.
Before joining Ethics Watch in 2008, Toro worked as a litigation partner at Senn Visciano Kirschenbaum P.C. and also writes about government ethics and campaign finance issues for Huffington Post Denver.
“I look forward to building upon Ethics Watch’s legacy of using legal tools to promote transparency and accountability in Colorado government,” said Toro.

Greenwood Village-based rare earths company Molycorp Minerals expanded its senior management team, promoting General Counsel John Ashburn to executive vice president and member of a newly formed “Office of the CEO.” View the official press release here.

Ashburn was with Molycorp since the mid-1990s when it was owned by Unocal and Chevron. The company was sold last year and became its own company in September, he said. While he said he liked working for Unocal and Chevron, he called the move from a large corporation to a smaller company “exciting.”