2019 Law Firm of the Year, Snell & Wilmer

During 2018, fourteen attorneys and one staff member (41% of their firm attorneys) from Snell & Wilmer’s Denver office participated in four Colorado Lawyers Committee projects. Jim Kilroy served as the firm representative on the Board of Directors and chaired the Medicaid Trust Project, which is challenging the legality of Colorado’s efforts to prematurely terminate special needs trusts when Medicaid recipients move out of state. Ellie Lockwood also worked on this project. Stephanie Kanan and Ellie Lockwood served on the CLC Young Lawyers Division Board, as Co-Chairs of Denver Legal Night. Fran Folin, Carter Gee-Taylor, Jordi Goodman, Stephanie Kanan, Eric Kintner, Michael Lindsay, Ellie Lockwood, Rachel Lynn, Luke Mecklenburg, Larry Myers, Tim Scalo, and Jessica Yates volunteered for Denver Legal Night, and assisted low-income clients. Denver Legal Night began in 2006 as an effort to provide legal information and referrals to individuals who did not otherwise have access to legal services. The Colorado Lawyers Committee co-sponsors, with the Denver Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and the Denver Access to Justice Committee, two monthly Legal Night Clinics at Centro San Juan Diego. Since Legal Night began, more than 30,000 individuals have been served. Four firm volunteers were active in the Jail Wait Litigation Team: Ellie Lockwood, Byeongsook Seo, Tim Scalo, and Colin Trottnow. For the last 11 years, the team has been pursuing litigation to force the State Hospital to assure that individuals who are presumed incompetent to stand trial are not held in jails for excessive periods of time before receiving treatment or being evaluated. After extensive negotiation, the Team reached a ground-breaking settlement that will greatly impact mental health treatment in Colorado.