2024 awards LuncheoN

September 26, 2024
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
The Ritz-Carlton Denver

Each year, the Colorado Lawyers Committee honors individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to the work of the Colorado Lawyers Committee through outstanding pro bono service. During 2023, nearly 1,000 volunteers donated 6,500 hours through the Colorado Lawyers Committee’s 27 active projects in the areas of Children’s Rights & Education, Civil & Criminal Law, Poverty & Public Benefits, Community Development, and Immigration. This year, the Lawyers Committee will honor a truly exceptional group of volunteers:

Phyllis Wan (Holland & Hart LLP) will receive the Outstanding Sustained Contribution Award for her work to improve and expand the Hate Crimes Education Program. Phyllis has donated more than 1,000 pro bono hours to this effort over the last two decades, much of that in middle and high school classrooms across Colorado.

A Special Recognition Award will be presented to the Colorado Lawyers Committee Hate Crimes Education Project which is celebrating 30 years in Colorado classrooms.

Four law firms have been nominated for CLC Law Firm of the Year:

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
The Harris Law Firm
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP

Four individuals have been nominated for CLC Individual of the Year:

Jared Ertle, Stinson LLP
Tasha Power, Fennemore.
Ryan Thurber, Polsinelli PC
Andrew Valencia, Ballard Spahr LLP

Another highlight will be this year’s Keynote Speaker Amber McReynolds. One of the country’s leading experts on election administration and policy, Ms. McReynolds was appointed by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a Governor on the United States Postal Service Board in 2021. As an experienced election professional, Ms. McReynolds has been recognized nationally for implementing technical innovations and designing pro-voter policies and voter-centric processes.

Governing Magazine named Ms. McReynolds a 2018 Top Public Official of the Year for her transformational work to improve the voting experience in Denver and across Colorado. She also serves on the National Task Force on Election Crises, the National Council on Election Integrity, the Advisory Board for the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Advisor to Vot-ER, and the Represent Women Board of Directors. Ms. McReynolds is the co-author of the 2020 book, When Women Vote: Election Reform as a Roadmap to Advance Equality.

The Colorado Lawyers Committee is a 45-year-old nonprofit, non-partisan consortium of almost 80 Colorado law firms dedicated to providing and increasing opportunities for children, the poor and other disadvantaged communities through high impact pro bono legal advocacy, negotiation, and litigation. 