Celebrating 30 Years: The Hill & Robbins Fellowship’s Lasting Impact

CLC Executive Director Kristin Bronson and Hill & Robbins Fellowship alumni at the 2026 Awards Luncheon

For 30 years, the Hill & Robbins Fellowship has embodied the belief that lawyers have both the opportunity and the responsibility to use their talents in service of the public good.

Created to inspire the next generation of lawyers to pursue public interest work, the fellowship annually awards a summer internship to a law student from the University of Colorado Law School or the University of Denver Sturm College of Law through partnerships with the Colorado Lawyers Committee (CLC) and Colorado Legal Services (CLS).

The fellowship’s origins are rooted in a historic consumer protection battle. Matt Montgomery, the CLC Board of Directors Representative for Hill & Robbins, P.C., explains that the program was funded by the firm's dedicated pro bono work.

"The Hill & Robbins Fellowship was paid out of proceeds from the pro bono work that our firm did in O’Bryant v. Mountain Bell, which leads back to the AT&T antitrust lawsuit," Montgomery shares. "What the long-distance provider realized back then was that, when people didn't pay their long-distance bills, they could shut off not only long-distance service but also local service to force payment."

Hill & Robbins challenged this practice. "The case went to the Colorado Supreme Court two or three times, establishing that this practice is illegal and that you could be awarded attorney's fees for pursuing consumer protection for public good," says Montgomery. "We used the attorney's fees from that lawsuit to pay for the fellowship."

Three decades later, those funds continue to help launch legal careers throughout Colorado, providing students with hands-on experience and impactful mentorship.

"Over the years, I’ve come across tons of students who did the fellowship and are now working at organizations like Colorado Legal Services and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network," Montgomery notes. "It’s a unique opportunity that people have taken to pursue public interest work."

Among those former students is Lauren Nelson, a 2L at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and the 2026 Hill & Robbins Fellow with the Colorado Lawyers Committee, who emphasizes how pivotal the experience was for her career path.

“The Hill & Robbins Fellowship solidified my desire to work within the public interest space, and where I fit in, and I don’t think I would’ve known that without this internship,” Nelson says. “I always knew helping people was the guiding light of my path, but the fellowship helped me focus on specific areas. By working with the Children’s Task Force, it showed me how interested I am in that type of work, and now I’m working with the Colorado Office of the Child’s Representative.”

Nelson adds that the scope of the program sets it apart from other student opportunities. “The experience is invaluable. There’s no other place where you can get this much exposure to see how public interest works in so many different areas.”

For other fellows, the program provided a front-row seat to landmark advocacy, directly shaping their long-term career choices. Sarah Lipka, Advocacy Director for Southern Colorado at Colorado Legal Services, participated in the fellowship after her 1L year at the University of Colorado Law School, an opportunity that launched her into a lifetime of public service.

"I worked at the Colorado Lawyers Committee, which was a wonderful and formative experience," Lipka recalls. "That summer, the CLC was working with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy on Hawthorn-Bey v. Reinterson, a class action against the newly implemented Colorado Benefits Management System, which improperly denied or delayed essential public benefits to tens of thousands of individuals and families."

The opportunity allowed Lipka to work alongside several committed and effective legal advocates. "Through this work I met committed and effective legal advocates including Connie Talmage, Maureen Farrell-Stevenson, Ed Kahn, Ilene Bloom, Elizbeth Arenales and Peter Komlos-Hrobsky. Shadowing these giants inspired me and gave me direction as I continued my studies."

The relationships built during that summer created a permanent career path. "When I was looking at internships in my 2L year, I remembered how impressed I was by Peter's work at Colorado Legal Services and interned at CLS in my 2L year," Lipka says. "I have been at Colorado Legal Services for over 18 years now. I am grateful that the Hill & Robbins Fellowship started me down the road that led me to my current work."

Beyond hands-on experience, the fellowship serves as a gateway into deeply connected, lifelong professional networks.

“CLC is one big community and, once you’ve found CLC, there’s no leaving CLC,” Nelson emphasizes. “Being plugged into that community is something that changed the trajectory of my professional journey. This internship gives you that kind of community.”

The long-term impact of this network is clear in the journey of Mekela Goehring, a past fellow who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN).

“I had the great honor of being a Hill & Robbins fellow and spending my summer working directly with Jon Asher, the Executive Director of Colorado Legal Services,” Goehring recalled. “With his supervision and guidance, I researched the landscape of legal service providers throughout the state, and spent time focusing on the areas where there were the greatest needs and the biggest gaps.”

For Goehring, the experience reinforced her exact reason for entering the legal profession, “I went to law school and became a lawyer because I wanted to work for social justice, to use the power of the law to fight for more equitable laws and outcomes, and I got to see that first-hand during my time at CLS.”

Looking back, Goehring attributes much of her professional journey to the door that opened for her while she was still a law student. “After my Hill and Robbins fellowship, I had the privilege of working as a clerk for Judge Casebold at the Colorado Court of Appeals. Following my clerkship, I joined the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, where I have worked for the last 23 years, fighting for justice for immigrants in deeply unjust systems,” she reflected. “It has been the greatest privilege of my professional life to work at RMIAN, an organization that truly embodies and lives out the ideals of equal justice for all, against all odds. And over the course of my two decades at RMIAN, Jon Asher has been a mentor, friend and supporter.”

"I am so grateful for my early days as a Hill & Robbins fellow, and for the unparalleled opportunity to step outside of law school and see the real-world impact that lawyers can make," she added.

It is a sentiment shared across generations of fellows. As Montgomery concluded, "It’s been an honor to be a part of the fellowship, and I want to thank Robert Hill and David Robbins for starting it."