(PHOTOS COURTEST OF HARTMANMPHOTO, LLC)
2025 Awards Luncheon
September 17, 2025
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
The Ritz-Carlton Denver
WE ARE SOLD OUT FOR THIS YEAR!
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 2024, 1,340 volunteers donated 12,480 hours through the Colorado Lawyers Committee’s 29 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:
Constance C. Talmage will receive the Legal Legacy Award. The Legal Legacy Award honors an attorney whose legacy of dedicated service and leadership has fostered a culture within a firm or the larger legal community that elevates the importance of pro bono legal work.
Four law firms have been nominated for Law Firm of the Year:
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
Cooley LLP
Husch Blackwell LLP
Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP
Four individuals have been nominated for Individual of the Year:
Sarah Benedict (Ireland, Stapleton, Pryor & Pascoe, PC)
Emily Garnett (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP)
Won Lee (Cooley LLP)
Patricia Peterson (Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP)
A Special Recognition Award will be presented to the Nonprofit Legal Audit Clinic, honoring the hard work and dedication of the Colorado Nonprofit Association, Association of Corporate Counsel-Colorado, and the Colorado Lawyers Committee volunteers who provide vital pro bono legal assistance to small nonprofits throughout Colorado.
The Taylor Ranch team of Lexi Chapman and Andrew Valencia (Ballard Spahr LLP) will be honored with this year’s Impact Award. The Impact Award recognizes a volunteer attorney or attorneys whose exceptional pro bono contributions to litigation have had a significant and positive impact on the community.
This year’s Keynote Speaker will be David Hinojosa. David is recognized as a national leading litigator, advocate, and thought leader in civil rights, specializing in education and immigrant rights. He currently serves as the Co-Director of Litigation at the National Center for Youth Law, where he helps guide the organization's litigation strategy to protect the interests and rights of children and youth across the nation.
Previously, David worked in U.S.D.O.J.’s Civil Rights Division, where he oversaw work in education and policy. At the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, he spearheaded the organization’s racial justice litigation, policy, and advocacy work in education. There, David served as Lead Counsel for students defending race-conscious admissions in SFFA v. UNC and SFFA v. Harvard, where he argued before the Supreme Court. He also championed the organization’s work in combating state classroom censorship laws.
As former Regional Counsel at MALDEF, his litigation and policy work assisted in desegregating schools, cultivating English Learner programs, preserving the Texas DREAM Act, and enforcing immigrant rights. This included arguing on behalf of parent-intervenors before the Supreme Court of Colorado in Lobato v. Colorado.
Well-published and a frequent speaker at conferences and in media, David graduated from Edgewood High School in San Antonio and served in the U.S. Air Force. He earned his B.A. from New Mexico State University and his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
To see information on previous Awards Luncheons, click here.
2024 AWARDS LUNCHEON VIDEOS
