Through a sophisticated peer review process, Best Lawyers recognizes top legal professionals annually.
According to the organization’s website, the lists “are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.” Lawyers who get positive enough votes to be included in a Best Lawyers list need to maintain the votes year after year to remain on the list.
This year, the “Lawyer of the Year” recognition has been awarded to only 5,223 honorees, according to a press release from Best Lawyers.
Hurdles in 2025 Include Regulatory Shifts and AI
Lawyers of the Year honorees think big hurdles in the coming year may come from regulatory shifts and changes in federal agency enforcement priorities. Two attorneys said artificial intelligence may be a big hurdle for attorneys as technology use in law continues to shift.
Dave St. John-Larkin, Denver office managing partner and patent attorney at Perkins Coie said many new patent-related AI tools were introduced last year. He noted navigating the impact of AI will be a focus for some attorneys in the patent practice area in 2025.
“I would anticipate AI technology will become an indispensable part of every attorney’s practice in a few short years, but much remains to get to that point,” St. John-Larkin said.
He explained the challenges of implementing various new AI technologies include securing client confidences and ensuring ethical obligations are rigorously upheld. “With all of that, I’m excited about the future, and less worried about the Rise of the Terminator.”
Faegre Drinker partner and patent attorney Kirstin Stoll-DeBell said her team’s main focus next year will be to defend their long-time client Microsoft in several lawsuits over its generative AI products. She explained the outcome of the cases may have a significant impact beyond the parties involved in the suits.
“We’ve seen AI help save individuals’ eyesight, make progress on new cures for cancer and provide predictions to protect people from hazardous weather,” Stoll-DeBell explained. “And, I personally have loved using new AI tools to help my kids with their homework.”
Greg Goldberg, government investigations and white collar defense partner at Holland & Hart, said the anticipated change in presidential administration will likely lead to a shift in enforcement priorities and policies for the Department of Justice. He noted shifts like that trigger different risks for clients.
“This requires keeping updated in real time on any such shifts and ensuring adequate resources and support in critical areas of focus by the government,” Goldberg said.
Davis Graham & Stubbs partner and bankruptcy attorney Chris Richardson said the issue in his sightline is the emergence of preferred filing locations for Chapter 11 debtors in Colorado. He said venue rules in state code enable a debtor to engineer where their case is heard.
“Colorado is not perceived as a favorable venue and sophisticated counsel will work to ensure a filing occurs in other more debtor friendly locations such as Delaware, the Southern District of New York or, until recently, the Southern District of Texas,” he added.
Heather Carson Perkins, executive partner and trial lawyer at Faegre Drinker, said system wide changes at the Federal Trade Commission may be something for clients and attorneys to keep an eye on.
She explained the FTC recently released two documents summarizing top concerns from industry stakeholders. “Both documents critically examine common methods franchisors use to implement system changes, suggesting that managing franchise evolution will become increasingly complex,” Carson Perkins said.
Legislation Takes the Lead
Federal and state legislation may also impact local attorneys, according to the Lawyers of the Year.
St. John-Larkin said federal legislation is often the most critical thing for his practice area. “The most recent U.S. federal legislative session introduced reforms aimed at improving patent quality and reducing frivolous litigation, including legislation that provides stricter criteria for patent eligibility and enhanced post-grant review processes, which could streamline patent disputes and, hopefully, foster innovation,” he said.
Kutak Rock partner and tax attorney Matthias Edrich said tax reforms could be a primary focus for the firm’s practice area in the coming year. “Several provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) expire by the end of September 2025,” he pointed out.
“As a firm, we are already working with clients to evaluate and find solutions to these types of risks in general, but the looming deadline of TCJA and associated tax reform efforts make this work more urgent,” Edrich stressed. “As an industry, I think we will need to vigilantly stay ahead of federal policy proposals that, unchecked, may result in significant harm to our clients and the general public.”
Richardson explained new regulations could lead to increased bankruptcy filings or business consolidation in Colorado, or the movement of businesses out of state. “The state is losing jobs to more business friendly jurisdictions where there is less regulation and hurdles to business.”
He added that Congress didn’t extend the increased debt limit to eligible Subchapter V debtors, which will lead to a reduction in the number of filings.
Airina Rodrigues, a shareholder and copyright attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, said legislative action related to AI has impacted local businesses.
“Colorado legislators passed a landmark AI bill prohibiting certain discriminatory uses of artificial intelligence and imposing broad rules on developers of ‘high-risk’ artificial intelligence systems and the businesses that use them,” she said.
Rodrigues said clients are already contacting the firm for advice regarding assessments of whether artificial intelligence models that they use or integrate into their proprietary software and systems could run afoul of the bill.
Supreme Court Decisions Could Lead to More Lawsuits
Meanwhile, U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit decisions are expected to impact attorneys in Colorado and those with national practices.
St. John-Larkin said one of the most impactful cases of the year was an en banc decision from the federal circuit in LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC.
“[The] Federal Circuit jettisoned a longstanding test to determine whether design patents are obvious, in favor of U.S. Supreme Court precedent that has been used to review obviousness in utility patents,” he explained. “While it is still too early to know the full impact of this decision, I anticipate that it may lead to a heightened importance in filing for design patent protection.”
Marcy Glenn, appellate senior counsel at Holland & Hart, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturning the 40-year-old Chevron deference doctrine dramatically changed administrative law for the coming year and possibly for decades to come.
“Now, a federal court must independently determine the single best construction of an agency’s ambiguous governing statute and must invalidate a regulation or agency action that is unauthorized by the court’s — rather than the agency’s — reading of the statute,” she explained. “In other words, under Chevron, reviewing courts applied a deferential standard of review to agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous statutes; under Loper Bright, review will be de novo. Because the standard of review is so critical to the viability of any claim, I predict that Loper Bright will greatly increase the number of lawsuits and appeals challenging agency regulations and decisions.”
Richardson also noted the Loper decision is likely to lead to increased litigation over agency action, which he said could slow movement in certain areas.
Rodrigues said this year the Supreme Court held in Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy that as long as a copyright claim is timely filed, there is no time limitation in which a plaintiff may seek damages. “These decisions may well be a one-two punch in favor of copyright owners, resulting in increased litigation, more burdensome discovery and potentially higher damages claims,” she said.
General Colorado Trends Lend to Mixed Outcomes
In terms of general trends, Lawyers of the Year say it’s a mixed bag locally, both for their own practice and for clients.
“I think we are currently experiencing a significant generational shift among practicing attorneys,” Edrich said. “Public finance attorneys who joined the bar before the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) with decades of practice experience are now in retirement age.”
Edrich said that partly because of the economic impact brought about by the TRA, law firms slowed or stopped hiring in public finance for several years after the act was passed. He explained that a meaningful gap of experience exists between the retiring generation and the generation of attorneys that joined the industry more recently. Bridging that gap is a challenge, but the reduction in the number of public finance attorneys could be an area of opportunity for young attorneys, according to Edrich.
On the modern economic impact end, Richardson said increased regulatory burdens could be driving real estate development away. “Local control over projects is so restrictive that we are seeing more real estate development projects fail or be withdrawn,” he noted.
Local laws could also impact clients and the way attorneys advise them.
Carson Perkins said lawmakers amended the statute governing noncompete agreements, which she noted are common in franchise contracts. She explained legislators also enacted a data privacy law affecting franchisors with Colorado-based customers or franchisees. “These changes will require franchisors to carefully review and potentially revise their agreements and operational practices to ensure compliance with Colorado law,” Carson Perkins noted.