The Colorado Lawyers Committee is a nonpartisan group of more than 70 Colorado law firms dedicated to increasing opportunities for disadvantaged communities through pro bono legal work. Each year, the organization hosts a luncheon and honors local attorneys, judges and law firms with awards that demonstrate their dedication to the community and to pro bono service.
The CLC is hosting this year’s luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 26 at the Ritz-Carlton Denver from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Ahead of the event, the organization released information about each nominee and award recipient and the awards they’re up for or being presented with.
For the Past Chair Award, Richard Westfall of Westfall Law is the 2024 recipient. Westfall served as the CLC’s chair of the board of directors from February 2022 through February 2024. CLC noted Westfall served as board chair during a particularly critical time in the organization’s history.
At the time, CLC’s longtime executive director had just announced her retirement. Westfall was able to guide the organization through a transition that included reorganizing and expanding the CLC’s staff. Part of that expansion included adding a new COO, as well as replacing the executive director.
In addition to providing guidance for this large-scale change for the organization, Westfall served as co-chair of CLC’s elections task force.
Nominees Jared Ertle at Stinson LLP, Tasha Power at Fennemore, Ryan Thurber at Polsinelli and Andrew Valencia at Ballard Spahr are up for the Individual of the Year Award.
Ertle serves on the CLC’s Young Lawyers Division board and he’s co-chair of the fundraising and events team for the YLD board. Since joining the fundraising team in 2022, CLC noted Ertle has helped build a strong team of volunteers who raised more than $42,000 through Casino Night and happy hour social events.
According to the organization, Casino Night is the largest fundraising effort for the YLD. Hosting the event includes coordinating vendors and volunteers and creating a silent auction to help raise funds to support YLD initiatives.
Ertle also volunteers with the Small Business Legal Assistance Program, which provides small businesses with one hour of free legal assistance to answer questions on a range of legal issues. He’s also a long-time supporter of the Nonprofit Legal Audit Clinic, where teams of transactional attorneys review a checklist with participating nonprofits to evaluate their legal health.
Power has been involved with CLC’s education task force, including participating in the school discipline subcommittee and pro bono school expulsion project. In 2023, the organization created a pilot program to represent students facing expulsion hearings. The CLC noted exclusionary discipline disproportionately burdens students of color, students with disabilities and students who identify as LGBTQ+.
The nonprofit’s project focuses on providing legal representation to students across Colorado facing expulsion who may not be able to afford legal assistance. Power made a significant impact in the project last year, according to the organization.
The CLC also noted Power volunteers with the Small Business Legal Assistance Program. Specifically, Power helps small businesses with questions about drafting contracts and negotiating lease agreements.
Thurber leads the organization’s health justice task force and nonprofit legal audit clinic and served for many years on the YLD Board, transitioning off of it last year. The CLC noted Thurber has been involved with the nonprofit legal audit clinic since 2017 through his seat on the YLD Board. He took over joint leadership of the clinic steering committee in 2022.
In 2023, the CLC’s mental health parity task force expanded and rebranded as the health justice task force. The organization noted Thurber spearheaded a partnership with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy and Colorado Legal Services to help individuals, mostly children, get the in-home nursing care they were entitled to under Medicaid. He also worked with several community partners to establish a pro bono project representing individuals who unfairly lost Medicaid coverage for procedural reasons without proper due process during the state’s unwind of the program after COVID.
Valencia has been involved at the leadership level with the Taylor Ranch Litigation the CLC has worked on for more than 40 years. In 2020, Valencia got involved alongside other volunteers from Ballard Spahr. They won a motion in early 2021 protecting the landowners’ adjudicated easement rights.
In May, the CLC noted Valencia and his team were victorious again at another evidentiary hearing in front of the special master in Costilla County. The team secured concessions from the ranch owner over the buffer zones around structures on the ranch, the installation of access gates and road maintenance. The team also got the ranch owner to agree to pay for more than 40 private gates to guarantee landowners unobstructed access to the land.
Up for the organization’s prestigious Law Firm of the Year Award are nominees Faegre Drinker, The Harris Law Firm, Lewis Roca and WilmerHale.
Last year, roughly 20 Faegre Drinker attorneys (40% of the firm’s lawyers) participated in 10 CLC projects and donated 237.9 hours of time; 21 attorneys and staff at The Harris Law Firm (88% of the firm’s lawyers) participated in 15 projects and donated 143.7 hours of time; 17 attorneys and staff in the Lewis Roca Denver office (25% of the firm’s lawyers) participated in 10 projects and donated 580.5 hours of time; and 29 attorneys and staff in the WilmerHale Denver office (68% of the firm’s lawyers) participated in 7 projects and donated 507.8 hours of time.
Phyllis Wan of Holland & Hart will receive the CLC’s Outstanding Sustained Contribution Award. The award is presented each year to an individual whose participation with the CLC over many years has significantly and positively promoted its mission, making an important difference in the lives of children and the underprivileged, according to the organization.
Wan will be honored for her 30 years of advocacy and leadership with the organization. The CLC noted she began volunteering with the education task force and federal block grant task force in 1994. Wan has also been an instrumental leader in the Hate Crimes Education Program since the mid-1990s and still serves as the chair of the steering committee.
The organization stated that during Wan’s two decades with the Hate Crimes Education Program, she coordinated a 2012 collaboration with Denver Public Schools, helped to modernize the program’s script and has been a frequent presenter for the program at dozens of schools. She also helped develop a National Hate Crimes Program, the CLC noted, donating more than 150 hours of her time alone to the cause.
Wan is an active volunteer with CLC’s other task forces, including Project Homeless Connect and Election Protection. She’s served on the CLC’s board of directors since 1999, excluding a few gap years.
The CLC estimates Wan has positively impacted thousands of students across the state.
The Special Recognition Award this year will go to the Hate Crimes Education Program. In early 2019, CLC received a grant from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to modify its program so it can be presented in any school in the country.
The organization noted the team expanded its original curriculum by revising the script based on a typical statute that includes gender expression and gender identity. The team also created a number of resources for interested schools, including separate guides for teachers, volunteers and administrators, and videos for teachers and volunteers that describe the program.
Individuals involved with the Hate Crimes Education Program include Jessica Allen with the City and County of Denver, Airport Office Building, DIA; Jack Hodge with WilmerHale; Kelsey Johnson with Davis Graham & Stubbs; Beth Ann Lennon with Venable LLP; John McHugh with Fennemore; Christine Snider with Ballard Spahr; Valeria Spencer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado; Phyllis Wan with Holland & Hart; and Anjie Zhi with Ballard Spahr LLP.