Six attorneys, one floor

Managing Partner

Margaret Whitaker

Margaret co-founded the firm in 1998 after ten years in the Denver office of a national firm. She tries commercial cases — contract disputes, shareholder and partnership conflicts, and trade secret matters — and she has carried roughly forty matters to verdict or arbitration award.

She is the attorney most likely to tell a client not to sue. Her view, stated frequently and without much diplomacy, is that litigation is a tool with a specific and narrow use, and that most business disputes are better resolved by someone with leverage and a clear head than by a jury eighteen months later.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 1988; U.S. District Court, District of Colorado; Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
• J.D., University of Colorado Law School, 1988
• B.A. in Economics, Colorado College, 1985
• Colorado Bar Association, Litigation Section
• Faculty, Colorado trial advocacy programme (2011–present)

Partner

Ross Hollis

Ross co-founded the firm and runs its employment practice. He advises Colorado employers on terminations, restrictive covenants, wage and hour exposure, and the policies that determine whether a dispute ever becomes a claim.

He spends more time preventing employment litigation than defending it, which he considers the better use of a client's money. Employers on monthly retainer call him before acting; employers who call afterwards generally wish they had.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 1991; U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
• J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 1991
• B.S. in Industrial Relations, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1988
• Colorado Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section
• Frequent presenter on Colorado's restrictive covenant statute

Partner

Priya Raghunathan

Priya leads the firm's real estate and land use practice. She handles commercial acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, and the entitlement work that determines whether a project is buildable at all — including contested rezonings and appearances before Front Range planning bodies.

She joined the firm in 2009 from a municipal attorney's office, which means she has sat on the other side of the table from developers and knows precisely which arguments a planning commission has already heard four times this year.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 2004
• J.D., University of Colorado Law School, 2004
• Master of Urban Planning, University of Michigan, 2001
• B.A., Rice University, 1999
• Former assistant city attorney, Front Range municipality (2004–2009)

Partner

Thomas Beckett

Thomas handles the firm's transactional work — entity formation, operating and shareholder agreements, purchase transactions, and business succession for closely held and family companies.

He drafts with the litigation practice in mind. Working two doors from attorneys who spend their days arguing about ambiguous provisions has, he says, made him substantially less tolerant of a clause that reads well and means nothing.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 2001
• J.D., Washington University in St. Louis, 2001
• B.B.A. in Accounting, University of Iowa, 1997
• Colorado Bar Association, Business Law Section

Associate

Yusuf Demir

Yusuf works on the firm's commercial litigation and construction matters, with particular attention to mechanic's lien practice and delay claims. He joined in 2020 after three years at a construction-focused firm in Phoenix.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 2020; Arizona, 2017
• J.D., Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, 2017
• B.S. in Civil Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 2014
• Languages: English, Turkish

Associate

Claire Nakamura

Claire handles employment matters and carries much of the firm's appellate briefing. She clerked for a judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals before joining the firm in 2022, and she is the person most likely to notice that an issue was never properly preserved at trial.

Credentials

• Admitted: Colorado, 2021
• J.D., University of Colorado Law School, 2021
• B.A. in Philosophy, Reed College, 2017
• Law clerk, Colorado Court of Appeals (2021–2022)