COLORADO JUDICIAL INSTITUTE

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1 COLORADO JUDICIAL INSTITUTE Volume 7, Issue 1 1st Quarter, 2011 In this Issue: CJI Know Scholarships Your Judge for Campaign ADR Conference Page 2 Page 2 CJI Thanks Sponsors of 2011 Judicial Excellence Dinner CJI Page Celebrates 3 30th Anniversary Page 4 Bender Named Chief Justice Page 5 Buy Your Tickets Now! CJI Judicial Welcomes Excellence New Dinner Page Executive 4 Director Page 5 Upcoming CJI Events: Seventh Annual CJI Judicial Upcoming Excellence CJI for Colorado Events: Dinner November 5, 2009 CJI Judicial Excellence Awards Nominations Judicial Independence Open Membership March Breakfast 2011 March 18, 2010 CJI Membership Breakfast April 28, 2011 Judges Get a Fair Hearing at Historic Judicial Excellence Dinner By Bob Ewegen, CJI Board Member and Journalist in Residence Thank you very much. With those four simple words, Magistrate Diane Dupree of the 2 nd Judicial District made a modest bit of legal history at the Colorado Judicial Institute s 8 th Annual Judicial Excellence for Colorado Dinner in Denver. Magistrate Dupree was honored for her special skill in domestic court, where she often handles contentious post-divorce and child welfare issues. She was one of three jurists along with Chief Judge Terry Ruckriegle of the 5th Judicial District and Boulder County Judge Thomas J.B. Reed honored for outstanding performance on and off the bench by CJI, a nonprofit citizens group that promotes fair and impartial courts in Colorado. CJI also gave its first-ever Distinguished Judicial Leadership Award to outgoing Chief Justice Mary J. Mullarkey of the Colorado Supreme Court. Unlike previous winners of the Judicial Excellence Award, this year s honorees were allowed to make brief remarks to the audience of well over 600 people gathered at the Marriott City Center on Nov. 18. Previous award winners could accept their awards but were required to remain mute by a policy of the Colorado Supreme Court that prohibited judges from speaking at fundraising events. Last July, the high court s Ethics Committee modified the rule Judicial Excellence Dinner Continued on Page 4 CJI Executive Committee: Robert N. Miller Board Chair CJI Executive Committee: Elinor Miller Greenberg Vice Chair Sheila M. Gutterman Vice Chair James Sheila M. E. Gutterman Board Scarboro Vice Chair Chair Peter Elinor D. Miller Willis Vice Greenberg Vice Chair Chair Anne James M. E. Garcia Treasurer Scarboro Vice Chair Rodney Peter D. Yokooji Secretary Willis Vice Chair Anne M. Garcia Treasurer CJI Rodney Staff: Yokooji Secretary Executive Director CJI Dana Staff: Nelson Director of Marketing and Administration Executive Director Cynthia Ophaug-Johansen Amy Ostheimer Director of Marketing and Administration Cynthia Ophaug-Johansen Colorado Judicial Institute P.O Box 118 Broomfield, CO (303) Colorado Judicial Institute P.O Box Broomfield, CO (303) CJI Judicial Excellence Award Recipients Judge Terry Ruckriegle, Magistrate Diane Dupree and Judge Tom Reed.

2 Public Education Effort Has Impact, Shows Promise By Dana Nelson, Special to CJI Did you see the television ad? Possibly hear the radio ad? Or maybe you received a postcard or newsletter with information about Know Your Judge.com. These educational campaign ads, sponsored in part by the Colorado Judicial Institute, reached over 225,000 Colorado voters. Letting Colorado voters know where to find information about the judges appearing on their ballots was the goal of the Know Your Judge educational campaign. Colorado voter data indicates significant voter drop-off toward the end of Know Your Judge our ballot just where judicial retention questions are found. Research polling has shown that 41 percent of voters who reported skipping judges on their ballots did so based upon a perceived lack of information or knowledge. However, 70 percent of voters indicated they would learn more about judges up for retention if the information was easily accessible. In the summer of 2010, CJI, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado League of Women Voters partnered to create a campaign to inform voters that what they said they were lacking easily accessible information about judicial performance was available online and in the Blue Book. The campaign consisted of television and radio advertisements, media coverage through interviews and editorials, and membership contact through the partner organizations. The ads encouraged voters to visit the campaign website ( On the website, visitors found links to the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance, links to the 2010 ballot information booklet the Blue Book, educational information about the Colorado When judges are on the ballot, what do you do? Don t skip them. Be informed. Get the simple, impartial, nonpartisan facts here. TV and radio ads, as well as postcards, encouraged voters to find more information about their judges rather than skipping these important votes. method for judicial selection, evaluation and retention and links to the partner organizations websites. During the three months the advertisements ran, the Know Your Judge website recorded 25,000 hits; the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance reported increased visits to the performance evaluations on their website; and CJI experienced increased web traffic to its own website. Approximately 11 percent of voters who saw or heard the advertisements visited the website to get more information. This campaign benefited immensely from the support of the Colorado Broadcasters Association. The advertisement met the standards of a public service announcement and therefore qualified for dramatically discounted airtime pricing. In three months, the PSA was aired 14,103 times with an estimated retail value of more than $500,000! The campaign would have not been possible without the support of the Broadcasters Association. The number of voters who saw the ads and visited the website were lower than initial campaign goals. However, there are a number of items that were quite positive. More than 200,000 people in Colorado know more about our judicial selection, evaluation and retention process than they did prior to visiting the campaign website. The 2010 campaign was a solid first step in what needs to be a consistent public education effort prior to each general election. The website will remain live to provide information about the system and it will be updated with performance evaluation data when available in The partner members of the campaign are committed to continuing the effort, and the campaign had significant impact for the dollars spent. In the News Mark Fogg, a CJI Board member, will be honored as a distinguished alumni in private practice at the 30th Annual University of Colorado Law School Alumni Awards Banquet on March 9. 2

3 CJI Thanks all the Generous Sponsors of the 2010 Judicial Excellence for Colorado Dinner Arnold & Porter LLP Barkley Martinez, P.C. Berg Hill Greenleaf & Ruscitti LLP Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP Platinum Sponsor Wheeler Trigg O Donnell LLP Gold Sponsors DISH Network L.L.C. Gutterman Griffiths PC Holland & Hart LLP Patten, MacPhee & Associates, Inc. American Arbitration Association Baker & Hostetler LLP Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, P.C. Colorado & Denver Bar Associations Colorado Bar Association Family Law Section Faegre & Benson LLP GHP Horwath, P.C. Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe, PC Silver Sponsors Jones & Keller, P.C. Judicial Arbiter Group, Inc. Mountain States Employers Council, Inc. Perkins Coie LLP Polsinelli Shughart PC Reilly Pozner LLP Robinson Waters & O'Dorisio, P.C. Senn Visciano Canges Rosenstein P.C. Arapahoe County & Douglas-Elbert Counties Bar Associations CIBER, Inc. Colorado Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Colorado Council of Mediators and Mediation Organizations DCP Midstream Partners, LP Eide Bailly LLP Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Grimshaw & Harring, P.C. Hanson & Co. Harper Lutz Zuber Hofer & Associates, LLC Heckenbach/Ammarell, LLP Holme Roberts & Owen LLP Bronze Sponsors And Thank You to our Special Sponsors Johnson & Cord, P.C. Kelly Garnsey Hubbell + Lass, LLC Kennedy Childs & Fogg, P.C. Litvak Litvak Mehrtens and Epstein, P.C. McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP Miller & Steiert, P.C. Montgomery Little & Soran, PC Montgomery, Kolodny, Amatuzio & Dusbabek, L.L.P. Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver Treece, Alfrey, Musat & Bosworth, P.C. Wells Anderson & Race LLC White and Steele, P.C. Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP For graphic design services Holland & Hart LLP For video production services IKON Office Solutions, Inc. For printing the dinner program Mountain States Employers Council, Inc. For providing meeting space Law Week Colorado For media sponsorship 3

4 Judicial Excellence Dinner Continued from Page 1 to allow state judges to speak at events concerned with the law, the legal system or the administration of justice. While the new rules apply to a number of nonprofit educational, religious, charitable, fraternal or civic organizations, some commentators term it the CJI exception because it closely fits the nonpartisan civic group, which has a majority of nonlawyers on its board. The Colorado Judicial Institute has worked steadily to protect the merit system of judicial selection adopted by Colorado voters in 1966, while improving the quality and ensuring the accountability of Colorado s judiciary. Besides recognizing judicial excellence, the annual dinner helps raise funds to foster that Retired Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, pictured with her husband, Reverend Tom Korson, received the CJI Distinguished Judicial Leadership Award. very excellence. Since CJI created its Judicial Education Fund in 2002, it has raised more than $250,000 to support continuing education for judges, magistrates and full-time judicial department employees. Such grants have become even more important in recent years as the state s worsening fiscal crisis has forced cutbacks in the court system s budget. Among other things, grants from CJI have paid for regional judicial conferences to replace those canceled by the budget crisis. Chief Justice Mullarkey, who stepped down from the Court on Nov. 30, hailed CJI and other civic groups who have fought to assure fair and impartial courts in Colorado. The support of CJI and other groups for merit selection of judges has helped spare Colorado from heavily politicized judicial elections, such as the recent Iowa vote that removed three members of the Iowa Supreme Court because apparently they decided a case wrong, she said. While Colorado voters adopted the merit selection system in 1966, Nevada voters just defeated a proposal to establish merit selection in their state, the Chief Justice noted. Mullarkey was named to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1987 by then-gov. Roy Romer. She was selected as Chief Justice by her fellow justices in She was honored by CJI for numerous efforts to improve the administration of justice in Colorado, including developing a statewide case management system, establishing e-filing systems for trial courts and developing the Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice Information System. The system enables all criminal justice agencies to track offenders through the legal system, from arrest and prosecution to adjudication and incarceration. In a film introducing Mullarkey, one former clerk described her passion for detail in the law by recounting a case that revolved around a particular phrase in the Colorado Constitution. Unsatisfied with looking at contemporary copies of the document, Mullarkey ordered the clerk to visit the state archives and verify the exact placement of a critical comma in the original 1876 document. Judge Reed has won special praise for his supervision of Boulder County s DUI Integrated Treatment Court a specialized court for repeat DUI offenders. Judge Reed closely supervises the participants and has had only one offender bomb out of the program a testament to the positive and productive environment created by Judge Reed and his team. Judge Ruckriegle was named to the 5th Judicial District (Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake and Summit counties) in 1984 and served as Chief Judge in the District from 1994 to He received high praise for his management of the Kobe Bryant case, which brought a horde of news media to Colorado to cover the rape charges filed against the National Basketball Association star. Ruckriegle kept the public informed and also maintained the fairness and dignity of his courtroom by putting motions and pleadings online where journalists could access them without disrupting and overwhelming court personnel. 4

5 Justice Bender Named as Chief Judge of Colorado Supreme Court By Amy Ostheimer, CJI Executive Director Congratulations to Justice Michael L. Bender, named Chief Justice to the Colorado Supreme Court by fellow justices. Justice Bender succeeded Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, who retired in Justice Bender joined the court in January He was in private practice from 1979 to He also served in the public defender offices in Denver, Jefferson County and the State of Colorado and worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1964 and his JD from the University of Colorado School of Law in Justice Bender is the 44 th person to be named Chief Justice since Colorado s statehood in As a strong proponent of judicial public education, Chief Justice Bender stated in his State of the Judiciary speech, We, as judges, need to expand our efforts to educate the public about what we do and what the rule of law means to the Judiciary. The educational outreach program Our Courts, initiated by Court of Appeals Judge Russell Carparelli and Federal District Court Judge Marcia Krieger and supported by the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado Judicial Institute, needs our full support. The Colorado Judicial Institute welcomes Monica M. Márquez to the Colorado Supreme Court effective December Prior to joining the Court, Justice Márquez served as Deputy Attorney General at the Colorado Attorney General s Office, where she led the State Services section, representing many Colorado Executive Branch agencies and Colorado s statewide elected public officials, including the Governor, Treasurer, Secretary of State and Attorney General. Prior to joining the AG s Office, Justice Marquez practiced general commercial litigation and employment law at Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP. She received her bachelor s degree from Stanford University and her JD from Yale Law School. New Executive Director Joins CJI CJI welcomed Amy Ostheimer as its new executive director in December. After receiving a B.B.A. in marketing from the University of Iowa, Amy began a career in hospitality at Keystone Resort. Thirteen years later, she left Keystone as Director of Hotel and Conference Operations. Her work history is diverse and includes hospitality and nonprofit management, special event and meeting planning, continuing education, paralegal, marketing, business development and strategic planning. She is a past volunteer for the Family Law Court Program. Amy has two daughters adopted from China and also cares for two dogs, a cat and two horses. She is a passionate horsewoman. Amy invites you to contact her to discuss your vision for CJI at Amy@ColoradoJudicialInstitute.org. Save the Date! CJI Annual Membership Breakfast April 28, 2011 Denver Athletic Club Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey Keynote Speaker This is your chance to introduce your friends and colleagues to the Colorado Judicial Institute. For more information, or to sign up to host a table or half table, contact Cynthia Ophaug-Johansen at