Denver District Attorney Beth McCann on Tuesday was sworn in for her second term in office by Denver County Court Presiding Judge Theresa Spahn. Assistant district attorney Zachary McCabe and all of the office’s chief deputies, deputies and investigators also renewed their oath to support the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions.
“By ensuring we live in a society that’s governed by laws, we help shape what kind of society we are going to have,” McCann said to her staff. “It is our responsibility to the people of Denver to advance a society that is just, equitable and compassionate so that all of us can have trust in our criminal justice system.”
LATERAL WATCH
Attorney Steve Zansberg, widely recognized as the preeminent First Amendment and media law lawyer in the Rocky Mountain region, has left Ballard Spahr to open his own firm, the Law Office of Steven D. Zansberg, LLC.
Zansberg will continue handling civil litigation, including defamation, other publication torts, intellectual property, and access matters, for newspapers, broadcasters, web-based publishers and others, from his newly formed solo practice.
“Although I have greatly enjoyed practicing alongside my colleagues and friends at Ballard Spahr (who are literally ‘the best in the business’), I’m excited to venture out on my own, providing my clients the same high-quality legal services at dramatically lower rates and with greater flexibility,” Zansberg said. “Working from home through the COVID pandemic, and seeing the devastating economic toll these past few years has had on the news industry, I realized I could better serve my clients outside of a large, national law firm.”
Prior to law school, Zansberg was a broadcast journalist at KQED-TV in San Francisco, where he produced documentaries and news segments for The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, PBS and ABC News. Following a federal appeals court clerkship, Zansberg began his media law practice in 1996 at Faegre & Benson (now Faegre Drinker) where he became a partner in 2001. In 2007, he and two other lawyers left that firm to join First Amendment litigation boutique, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, opening its Denver office. In 2017 that firm merged into Ballard Spahr with more than 650 attorneys in 15 offices.
Zansberg has represented local and national news media clients in multiple high-profile national cases: the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, the massacre at Columbine High School, Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case, the Aurora Theater shooting, and the 2015 mass shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
Zansberg will continue serving as the President of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, where he has successfully advocated for reforms to Colorado’s open records and open meetings laws, and recently succeeded in prompting the state’s judicial branch to adopt a statewide standard for public access to criminal case files.
Perkins Coie announced that Andrew Kline has joined the firm in Denver as senior counsel in the firm’s business litigation practice and cannabis law industry group.
“The cannabis industry continues to rapidly evolve and is now a $15 billion industry that includes startups, emerging private companies and publicly traded corporations, and we’re truly excited to welcome Andrew to our growing team,” said Barak Cohen, firmwide chair of Perkins Coie’s Cannabis industry group.
Most recently, Kline had been leading public policy for the cannabis industry at the National Cannabis Industry Association and was previously president of the National Association of Cannabis Businesses.
Prior to joining the cannabis industry, Andrew held a variety of high-profile positions in government and the private sector. Andrew’s experience as a federal prosecutor includes six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.
He also served as a federal prosecutor for six years in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, with the DOJ’s Criminal Division, and in the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. He has first-chaired over 40 criminal jury trials, 12 bench trials, and argued numerous criminal appeals.
Kline received a law degree from the Pepperdine University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Emerson College. He also has an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Kline is admitted to the bar in Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C.
JUDICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gov. Jared Polis announced Jan. 13 that he has appointed Brett Martin and Teri Vasquez to the 17th Judicial District Court. Martin fills a vacancy occasioned by the voters’ decision not to retain Judge Tomee Crespin. His appointment is effective immediately. Vasquez fills a vacancy occasioned by the retirement of Judge Emily Anderson. Her appointment is effective January 23.
Martin is a chief trial deputy in the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Previously, he was a County Court Chief in the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office; trial attorney for the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office; and a case manager with the Department of Youth Services. Martin received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri in 2004 and a law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Vasquez is a shareholder with Bayer & Carey, a position she has held since 2014. Her practice consists of insurance defense litigation, primarily personal injury matters. Previously, Vasquez served as an associate with Bayer & Carey, Stuart S. Jorgensen & Associates, Thelen Reid and Priest, and Adams Duque & Hazeltine.
Vasquez received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles and a law degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.