Philip A. Cherner, grew up in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree during the turbulent ‘60's. He graduated from Vanderbilt Law School in 1975 and within a few days moved to Denver where he set up a private practice.  After five years of general practice, including a healthy dose of criminal and civil trials in the state and federal courts, he became a deputy state public defender.  Phil stayed with the Colorado State Public Defender until 1988.  While there he tried over 80 felony jury trials and handled numerous appeals. He also started teaching at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and became an adjunct professor. In 1990, after a brief stint with a small firm, Phil set out on his own doing primarily criminal defense, while continuing to teach trial practice and professional responsibility.  The latter effort launched him into a whole new specialty of attorney grievance defense and bar admissions. Until her retired in 2017 Phil has concentrated on high level criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels, as well as representing lawyers and law students.  He has testified as an expert in criminal defense and professional responsibility numerous times and authored several articles on those subjects as well.  In addition he served many years as a board member of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and also on the Colorado Supreme Court’s committees on criminal rules and evidence. Phil was part of several teams that defended the accused in death penalty cases.  At the end of the last century, Phil led a team of lawyers litigating post-conviction claims for a Colorado death row inmate.  That effort culminated in a gubernatorial reprieve in May 2013. In January 2014, Phil joined the Denver office of Vicente Sederberg, LLC, where he worked until retiring in 2017.  That left him time to actively engage as chair of the board of Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.  CADP and other organizations lead the successful movement in Colorado to repeal its death penalty (and clear the row) in 2020. In his spare time Phil enjoys photography and pines for the resurrection of the Grateful Dead.

(03/23)