Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado Presents 2016 Awards to Denver Attorneys
Denver, CO (PRWEB) February 24, 2016 -- The Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado will present its 2016 annual awards to Brian Bates and Maureen Reidy Witt of Denver on Thursday, Feb. 25.
Bates will receive the St. Thomas More Award, and Witt will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Both honorees are graduates of the University of Notre Dame Law School. This marks the first year in which both the Guild’s awardees are Notre Dame graduates.
The 2016 awardees join a select group of individuals the Guild has honored since 1977. Past recipients of the St. Thomas More Award include: former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter; and former U.S. Senator and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazaar. Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include: former Colorado Attorney General and current Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers; and former U.S. Secretary of Veteran Affairs Jim Nicholson.
Brian Bates: St. Thomas More Award
Bates, a partner with Antonio Bates Bernard, P.C., in Denver, will receive the St. Thomas More Award. The Guild presents the award to an attorney who exemplifies the intellect, integrity and moral courage of St. Thomas More in service to God, country and profession.
Bates, who specializes in corporate counsel and commercial litigation, is a member of the American, Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, the William Doyle Inn of Court and the Colorado Judicial Institute. He is listed in "Best Lawyers in America" and was a "Best Lawyers’" Lawyer of the Year in 2015.
His volunteer service includes work with the Colorado Lawyers Committee, Colorado Lawyers for the Arts and the Law Line 9 program with KUSA-TV (Denver). Bates served as a member of the board of directors with the Lupus Foundation of Colorado for 20 years, currently is a member of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado board of directors, and has served as president of the Guild.
A member of St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish (Denver), he serves on the parish council and stewardship committee, as an extraordinary minister, a minister to the sick and homebound, and volunteer with the parish’s Soup-n-Sandwich Line. He is a member of the Denver Province review board of The Redemptorists (Denver).
Bates serves on the executive advisory committee of the University of Notre Dame Law Association. He has held the positions of regional director and vice president of the university’s national alumni board of directors. Locally, he has served as president of the Notre Dame Club of Denver, and as a member of its board of directors for 17 years. He is a recipient of the club’s Distinguished Service Award and Award of the Year.
He received Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Notre Dame, and Master of Arts degree from the University of Toledo.
Maureen Reidy Witt: Lifetime Achievement Award
Witt, a partner with Holland & Hart LLP in Denver, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Guild presents the honor to an attorney for his or her outstanding lifetime contribution to religion, profession and country.
Witt represents clients in complex litigation locally and nationally, with primary areas of focus in commercial litigation, product liability, and labor and employment. She has tried cases in jurisdictions across the country, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. Witt served as Holland & Hart's managing partner from 1988 to 1991 and served on the firm's management committee from 2004 to 2006.
She has served as a member of the Colorado Lawyers Committee Chair’s Roundtable since its inception, has served as a board member of the Notre Dame Law Association since 2008, teaches regularly at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and lectures frequently on trial advocacy. A member of St. Thomas More parish (Centennial, Colo.), she has served on the board of trustees at St. Mary’s Academy (Englewood, Colo.) school’s board for 15 years, and has held the position of chairman of the board.
She has been named Denver Business Journal's Outstanding Woman in Business, one of Law Week’s Colorado Top Litigators, and a top woman lawyer in Colorado by Colorado Super Lawyers®. Witt is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Litigation Counsel of America, Colorado Supreme Court Commission on Jury Reform, Colorado Defense Lawyers Association, Alliance of Professional Women, and American, Colorado, Denver and Colorado Women’s Bar Associations.
Witt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gonzaga University and the Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School, where she served as an editor of the Notre Dame Law Review.
The Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado (http://www.colocatholiclawyers.com)
The Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado is an association that promotes the social, intellectual, temporal and spiritual welfare of members of the legal profession. Goals include: the promotion of high standards of religious and ethical ideals and practices among lawyers; instruction in the application of general ethical principles to concrete legal problems; and promotion of the intellectual and spiritual welfare of its members. The organization, which began in 1960 as the Denver Catholic Lawyers Guild, hosts regular educational, spiritual, community service and charity events.
Aimee Bennett, Fagan Business Communications, +1 303-843-9840, [email protected]
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