LAW WEEK COLORADO

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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LAW WEEK COLORADO

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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LAW WEEK COLORADO

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

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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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Gov. Bill Ritter appointed 7th Judicial District assistant district attorney Jerry Joe Montgomery to the Montrose County bench.

Montgomery replaces Judge John Mitchel, who will step down Jan. 11. Other finalists in line for the appointment with Montgomery were fellow prosecutors Anna Cooling and Seth Ryan. All three were the only applicants, a spokesman for the state judicial branch confirmed to Law Week. The annual salary for a county court judge is $123,067.

Prior to becoming a prosecutor in Montrose, Montgomery was also a public defender in Missouri, an in-house tax attorney with Broomfield-based Omni Financial and president of Monument-based nonprofit Touch the World Foundation. He received his juris doctor from the University of Washington in Missouri.

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By Ali McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Hundreds crammed in and around the University of Denver Sturm College of Law forum as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor answered questions about her life in law school, as a corporate attorney, her journey through the bench and as a minority.

“I think it was really cool for Sotomayor to come to Colorado and answer our questions because not many people get the opportunity to ask them,” said Jessica Keys, a 17-year-old senior at Manual High School who got first crack at the Q & A session.

Keys asked Sotomayor whether her race and upbringing in the Bronx suburb of Manhattan made her feel out of place at Princeton, where the justice received her undergraduate degree.

“I’m on the Supreme Court of the United States and I’m one of nine extraordinary people. Every morning I get up and I wonder, am I really here? Do I really belong? It takes a long time for that feeling to go away,” Sotomayor said. “Even if I’m a little bit different, it’s okay, and I guess that’s where I am now. It’s okay.”

Sotomayor was invited to speak by DU and the Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence, a Denver-based nonprofit focused on diversity in the legal profession.

Editor’s Note: Read a full account of the Sotomayor session, including her comments on her obstacles as a private practice attorney in New York, in the Aug. 30 print edition of Law Week.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – A veteran Denver employment attorney has been appointed vice president, general counsel and secretary of the University of Colorado, reports the Greeley Tribune.

Daniel Satriana Jr. is a name partner at Denver law firm Clisham Satriana & Biscan, where his practice focuses on employment and media law. He received his juris doctor from Villanova University in 1979 and has been practicing law in Colorado for more than 30 years.

“His experience, coupled with the integrity he brings to the position, make him an extremely good fit for the university,” UNC president Kay Norton said in a news release.

Satriana begins his new position in mid-September. He succeeds current UNC general counsel Ron Lambden, who’s been with the university since 1999.

Satriana was the only finalist and will be paid $160,000, a university spokesman told Law Week Colorado. His predecessor’s salary was $134,000.

The full release is published below.

UNC Names General Counsel, Board Secretary

GREELEY – The University of Northern Colorado has named Denver labor and employment attorney Daniel R. Satriana Jr. as vice president and general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees.

Satriana has practiced law in Colorado for more than 30 years, including 12 years of law firm management in Denver, first at Hall & Evans and for the past six years at Clisham, Satriana & Biscan.

“Dan is a pre-eminent labor and employment attorney who possesses stellar professional credentials,” said UNC President Kay Norton. “His experience, coupled with the integrity he brings to the position, make him an extremely good fit for the university.”

Satriana graduated with a bachelor’s degree in History in 1976 from Lafayette College in Easton, Penn. He earned his law degree from Villanova University School of Law in 1979. He’s been a licensed Colorado attorney since 1979.

Satriana will officially begin at UNC in mid-September. He replaces Ronald Lambden, who retired in June after serving at UNC since 1999.

“I am looking forward to working with President Norton, the board and the UNC community,” Satriana said. “I’m pleased to have the opportunity to do so in the stimulating university environment.”

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – The City of Grand Junction filed a formal response in U.S. District Court in Denver denying claims of negligence in a lawsuit from a woman who alleged she was raped by a Grand Junction police officer, reports Paul Shockley from the Grand Junction Sentinel.

Attorneys with the Denver-based civil litigation defense law firm Senter Goldfarb & Rice argued that the late 35-year-old officer Glenn Coyne, who was fired in October hours after being booked in the Mesa County Jail on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman in late-September, “was neither acting within the course or scope of his employment, nor acting under color of state law, nor acting with the authority of or with the knowledge of defendants.” The response also asked a judge to dismiss the case and to order the woman to pay the city’s legal fees for failing to “reasonably mitigate her alleged damages.”

Coyne committed suicide five days later after posting a $250,000 bond. The woman claimed she suffered a broken shoulder, fractured ribs and other cuts and bruises, aside from injuries consistent with a sexual assault.

The lawsuit was originally reported by the Associated Press, who didn’t release the woman’s name because she is a rape victim, in July.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

CANON CITY – Those doing business at the Fremont Combined Court on Aug. 23 will be asked to participate in a survey that will be used by the Colorado Judicial Branch to measure public opinion about access to and fairness of the courts.

This will be the first time such a survey has been administered in the 11th Judicial District. The survey is anonymous and will be given in English or Spanish. It will ask questions about experiences as jurors, as parties in a case, whether cases were handled in a fair manner, judicial conduct and other questions pertaining to how cases were handled by the Judicial.

Attorneys, law enforcement officers and anyone else who does business with the courts also will be encouraged to participate.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Northern Colorado counties may soon see a new regional crime lab within the next year, reports Mike Hooker from CBS Denver.

Weld County commissioners have committed $2 million to build a new crime lab and are urging Larimer County, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley to each put up $55,000 a year for operations and maintenance at the lab. The new lab is aimed at relieving the DNA processing backlog at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation unit in Denver.

“If you have DNA requests, sometimes the back log really extends the period of return time,” 8th Judicial District Attorney Larry Abrahamson told Law Week in January for a story investigating backlogs in criminal courts.

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