LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER – Heather Schell joined Denver law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s bankruptcy and restructuring practice group as an associate.
Schell is a 2007 graduate from the Univeresity of Texas School of Law. Prior to joining Brownstein, she was an associate with Denver law firm Kutner Miller Brinen.
The 79-year-old U.S. Custom House construction is expected to be completed December 2012
The U.S. Custom House on 19th and Stout streets, which houses the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, is in its first months of renovations on its infrastructure.
The $23 million project will go to renovations of the 79-year-old building, including replacements of windows and walls, and updates to electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems. The Custom House’s energy usage will be reduced by 20 percent after the renovation’s expected completion of December 2012.
Most of the funds, about $16 million, will come from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The remainder will come from the U.S. General Services Administration, who acts as the “landlord” for the building, said U.S. Bankruptcy Court Clerk Brad Bolton.
Judges Howard Tallman, Michael Romero, Bruce Campbell, Elizabeth Brown and Sidney Brooks will have to move when construction begins in December near the court’s fifth floor location. Administrative offices will remain in the building during the construction process, but court proceedings will move into reserved rooms in the U.S. Courthouse Annex of the Byron Rodgers Federal Building across the street.
“It’s not so much that work’s going to be conducted on the fifth floor, it’s just that they cannot hold court with all the noise from construction,” said Bradford Bolton, clerk of the court. “For much of what we do, we have to have a record. The noise is going to prevent us from having a good quality record.”
The building’s six courtrooms will also receive technology updates. The $205,000 renovations, plus money for equipment, is separate from the ARRA funds and will be paid for by the court’s annual federal funding.
Read more about the renovations with insight from local bankruptcy attorneys Mike Pankow and Matt Ochs in the June 1 issue of Law Week Colorado.
Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts for fiscal year 2009 rose 34.5 percent, when compared to FY 2008 filings. Bankruptcy and other court units experiencing a rise in filings will receive just over $5 billion in appropriations under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010.
As bankruptcies have surged in the past few years, Colorado Springs attorney John Turner was forced to do something almost unheard of lately: He hired people to help keep up with business, the Gazette newspaper reports.
Married Colorado bankruptcy attorneys Gailyn and Michael Wink , co-founders of Wink & Wink, P.C., announce that they recently began blogging about consumer rights, Colorado bankruptcy law news and commentary, and the joys of working with your spouse on “He Said, She Said”.
