Editor’s Note: Copies of EEOC lawsuits filed in Colorado and Nebraska are published below.

JBS USA, headquartered in Greeley, is being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allowing a hostile work environment to be created for its Somali and Muslim employees due to their race, nationality and religion at meatpacking plants in Greeley and Grand Island, Neb., according to the Northern Colorado Business Report.

Two lawsuits were filed Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court in Denver concerning alleged harassment of employees during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in September 2008. The lawsuits also allege that a pattern of discrimination continued in the two plants since that time.

The lawsuits claim supervisors and co-workers at the two JBS plants “threw blood, meat and bones at the Muslim employees and called them offensive names.” The suits also allege workers wrote derogatory comments about Somalis and Muslims on the walls of plant restrooms.

Swift Complaint – Colorado

Swift Complaint – Nebraska

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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

Colorado’s best-known tax-basher has the government in fits again, the Associated Press reports.

Douglas Bruce, the father of Colorado’s tax-limiting Taxpayer Bill of Rights, was awarded a second delay Wednesday in contempt-of-court charges against him.

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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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A three-judge 9th Circuit panel, in an unpublished opinion released Aug. 5, concluded that pay-TV provider NDS prevailed at trial on a lawsuit filed against it by Denver’s EchoStar Corp., The American Lawyer reports.

The panel reversed a trial judge’s award to EchoStar, ordering him to enter judgment denying attorney fees and costs to EchoStar.

The appellate judges also reconsidered fees for NDS’ lawyers, concluding that they were due about $18 million in fees, plus reasonable costs — about twice what Carter ordered. Instead of a net $4 million in attorney fees to EchoStar, EchoStar now has to pay NDS $18 million, a swing of $22 million.

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Law Week Photo: Jamie Cotten
Frederick Feuerbach, Jr. speaks about the death of his daughter, Caroline Lofgren, and her family.

LAW WEEK COLORADO

Relatives of the Denver family of four that died from carbon monoxide in a home near Aspen filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Denver District Court against various contractors and Pitkin County. A criminal case into the incident and announced recently took precedence, the relatives’ attorney said.

Relatives of the Lofgren family are represented by Denver attorney William Hansen of McDermott Hansen & McLaughlin. The suit was filed to meet the state’s statute of limitations, which runs out in November.

The relatives also have created a website detailing the case and their efforts.

Parker Lofgren, 39, wife Caroline, 42, and children Owen, 10, and Sophie, 8, died in November 2008 from carbon monoxide during a vacation stay at a home located 4 miles outside of Aspen city limits. Last month a Pitkin County grand jury indicted a plumber and two building inspectors of criminal charges connected to the deaths.

Lofgren Civil Case

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LAW WEEK PHOTO | Matthew Meier

By Ali McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Jason Sapsin, a former FDA associate chief counsel, recently joined Polsinelli to open an FDA regulatory practice at the Denver office of Polsinelli Shughart. Sapsin said he is unaware of any other attorneys in the state with a practice focused on advising businesses in FDA matteres. Colorado’s health-conscious culture, as well as Boulder’s small business growth in organic food and dietary supplements, prompted the law firm to take a traditionally Washington D.C.-based practice out west.

“Colorado has a really remarkable business environment for the development of companies that produce FDA-regulated products such as device companies and life sciences companies,” Sapsin said. “Just in the Boulder area alone, the number of natural and organic products companies not just in food, but in dietary supplements and cosmetics. There’s just an enormous amount of activity in Colorado.”

Editor’s Note: Check out an in-depth Q & A with Sapsin in the print edition of Law Week Colorado.