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The Young Guns:
In Denver's law community, the 'youngsters' are breaking out on their own

June 1-7, 2007 by Beth Potter

Young and inexperienced, or eager and aggressive?

Old and cynical, or established and trusted?

In the Denver legal community, it depends on who you talk to about how firms started and run by young lawyers stack up against those with national and international reputations.

One example is K.C. Groves, 41, who's in charge of the 80-plus-year-old firm of Ireland Stapleton. John Zakhem, 35, is a principal of the almost-10-year-old firm Zakhem Atherton, which has a good reputation for its government policy work. Budman & Hershey principal Brian Budman, 39, handles estate planning and trusts.

"Idealistic young law grads vie for the top established firms to learn how to practice and make money to pay back student loans. But those same lawyers often plan to leave and form their own firms within a few years."

- Bob Weiss

Older lawyers say age and experience are on their side in attracting clients.

It's tough to deliver the goods when you don't have much practice in how to do your job, said Ed Flitton, former managing partner at Holland & Hart, the largest firm in town, which was formed more than 60 years ago. With close to 360 attorneys, Holland & Hart focuses on litigation, real estate and other business-related law matters.

"Most of us feel that some sort of internship, if you will -- it's almost like a medical residency -- is pretty important," Flitton said. "You learn the academic side of law in law school, but that doesn't get you in position to practice law on your own."

About 35 percent of Holland & Hart's attorneys are 35 and younger, Flitton said.

But younger lawyers can succeed on their own or with partners, if they ask questions and take risks, said Zakhem, who opened the firm now named Zakhem Atherton with law school colleague Sean Doyle in 1998 when the two graduated.

Zakhem said he first asked for advice from mentor Steve Farber, of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who supported his plan to strike out on his own.

The team had more bravado than brains when they started out without a safety net, Zakhem said. "We're courageous in how we approach the law."

Zakhem said he looks to established lawyers and judges as mentors who can teach him what he doesn't know, much as fellow attorneys in a larger law firm might teach younger associates. If he doesn't know something, Zakhem said, he often hires legal experts to help out. Then he uses what he learns from those experts when he gets similar casework.

"I wasn't scared to sign up clients with cases that I hadn't done before," Zakhem said. "I tell them I'm not the best in the world at this type of litigation or transaction, but I do tell them, I'm as good as you're going to find in terms of taking care of my clients and working hard for you."

Zakhem admitted he had some help when he started out. As fifth-generation Colorado residents, he and Doyle were well-known through their families, which meant they found a clientele more easily than many young lawyers.

Ireland Stapleton is also well-known in the community, with legal heavyweights such as Monty Pascoe, who recently passed away, generating a strong clientele, Groves said. The firm's founders also were focused on giving younger lawyers lots of experience, he said.

"There has always been a strong commitment to training and bringing younger lawyers up the ranks," Groves said. "It's not a highly leveraged culture. There's an emphasis on really excellent legal work."

When young lawyers are trying to decide whether to work for an established firm or start their own, it usually comes down to money, said Bob Weiss, a principal at Alyn-Weiss and Associates in Denver, a consulting and marketing firm that has many lawyers and firms as clients.

Idealistic young law grads vie for the top established firms to learn how to practice and make money to pay back student loans. But those same lawyers often plan to leave and form their own firms within a few years, Weiss said.

"They understood they would work extraordinary hours, but they had a plan -- to leave after a few years, and with classmates or friends, start a firm of their own," Weiss said. "That's why studies reveal 80 percent of associates hired by the largest firms leave within a few years."

Holland & Hart and other large firms offer training programs and other perks to make up for the long hours. Those who stay with such a firm for eight years can become a partner. "We feel really good [when we go up against smaller firms]," Flitton said. "We have more experience and more support behind us. We have paralegals to help get ready for trial; those people don't have that support."

For attorneys such as Brian Popp, 38, that's OK, because he feels like he doesn't compete with big firms in his general practice that focuses on domestic relations, divorce, child custody, adoptions, personal injury and collection work.

"I'm not getting big political people. Clients go to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for that," Popp said. "I'm not getting big corporate clients. I have my best clients through word-of-mouth. My friends and family refer me because of the kind of help I can provide to them."

Attorneys at Townsend and Townsend and Crew, a national firm specializing in high-tech cases, also say they're not competing with many old-line firms in Denver, said Tom Franklin, 39, an attorney there. Many of the firm's 22 attorneys in its Denver office are former engineers or have other high-tech backgrounds, and most of them are young, Franklin said.

"My clients are typically of a similar age to me, and they have similar technological backgrounds to me," Franklin said. "They have a perception, right or wrong, that someone 67 years old is not going to be able to understand their technology. They're in their 20s and many feel they can't relate to someone who is a lot older."

Conversely, there's Brian Budman, 39, a principal at Budman & Hershey, who deals with estate planning and trusts who said his prematurely white hair might make older clients feel more comfortable with him.

Budman belongs to a group of sole practitioners who get together regularly to discuss issues, such as marketing and legal development, that affect their firms.

About 4,000 young lawyers, classified as those 38 or who have been admitted to the bar for three years or less, are registered with the Colorado Bar Association, said Elisa Willard, its membership manager. Of those, about 800 work for large firms, classified as 16 or more attorneys, and about 798 are with one- or two-person operations.

Some 73 percent of all Colorado attorneys are registered with the professional association, Willard said.

"If you can't get a job, you're going to be hanging out your shingle," Willard said.

Please call us at 303.298.1676 or email us to schedule a private consultation with Bob Weiss.