In 2012 and 2013, the American Bar Association adopted substantial changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which are the ethics rules on which the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct (the CRPC) are largely based.  On April 6, 2016, effective immediately, the Colorado Supreme Court adopted a number of amendments to the CRPC.  Many of these amendments track the ABA’s amendments to the Model Rules while others are Colorado-specific.  At the same time, the Court also adopted several amendments that are unrelated to the ABA’s Model Rule amendments.  

Every Colorado attorney has a professional duty to keep abreast of changes to the ethics rules. Some of the recent changes impose new or heightened duties on lawyers; others permit lawyers to engage in previously prohibited conduct.  Many of the changes are relatively minor, while others will be significant for some Colorado lawyers.  

This breakfast CLE, presented by members of the Court’s Standing Committee on the CRPC, which proposed the recently adopted amendments, reviews those amendments.  Participants will receive the redline version of the amended rules and their “quasi-legislative history”—the materials that the Standing Committee submitted to the Court with the proposed amendments.

Meet Your Presenters

 

Marcy G. Glenn, Esq., is a partner at Holland & Hart LLP, resident in the firm's Denver office, where she specializes in appellate litigation and legal ethics.  Ms. Glenn is a former chair of Holland & Hart's Appellate Practice Group and she practices regularly in federal and state appellate courts throughout the United States. Since 2003, she has served as chair of the Colorado Supreme Court's Standing Committee on the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct.  She formerly chaired the Committee on Conduct of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, and is a current member and former chair of the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee.  Ms. Glenn frequently lectures and writes on appellate and ethics issues.  

 

David W. Stark, Esq., is a trial lawyer practicing in the area of complex commercial litigation with emphasis in professional responsibility, energy, banking, securities fraud, intellectual property, and probate and trust. He is a partner with Faegre Baker Daniels LLP. After receiving his B.A. from the University of Colorado, Mr. Stark attended the University of Colorado School of Law, graduating in 1973. He was employed as a chief deputy district attorney in the Denver District Attorney's Office, serving from 1973 to 1978. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law. Mr. Stark has lectured at numerous continuing legal education seminars regarding trial advocacy and other litigation topics, and served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee. He also served as the chair of the Colorado Supreme Court Attorney Regulation Committee from 1996 through 2001 and currently is the chair of the Colorado Supreme Court Attorney Regulation Advisory Committee. He has served as a member of the Colorado Supreme Court Standing Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct since 2005. He has served as a member of the CBA/DBA Professionalism Coordinating Council since 2011. He has also served as a member of the Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice's Commission since 2011 and is the current chair of the service working group on the Commission. He has successfully tried numerous jury and bench trials in federal and state court, and has also handled an extensive number of appeals through briefing and oral argument.

 

James S. Sudler, Esq., has worked in the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel since 1992. He is currently Chief Deputy Regulation Counsel in charge of the Litigation Division of that office. He was licensed to practice law in 1977.  Early in his career, he worked as a Deputy District Attorney in Denver. He also was an associate in the firm of Rothgerber, Appel & Powers. He later was in the Special Prosecutions Unit of the Colorado Attorney General's Office. Jamie designed and developed Trust Account School, which is offered four times a year to Colorado attorneys and office administrators. This half-day course helps lawyers understand and avoid trust account problems that arise in everyday practice. Jamie has taught at the Colorado Supreme Court Ethics School on many occasions, and he regularly lectures to lawyers about various issues, including conflicts, confidentiality, trust accounts, fees and fee agreements. He has also taught at the University of Denver.  He recently completed a 26-day trial in Phoenix, Arizona, in which his office was appointed to investigate and, if necessary prosecute, the former Maricopa County Attorney and two of his deputies for ethical violations over a period of years.