Meet the 2023 COBALT Class
May 2023
Download This Article (.pdf)
The Colorado Bar Association is pleased to introduce the COBALT class of 2023. COBALT is an interactive leadership training program designed to create a core of practicing attorneys who are knowledgeable about the ethical, professional, and community service issues facing the Colorado legal community. The six-month program includes a retreat, several full-day workshops led by community leaders across the state, and a graduation celebration. As part of its coursework, this year’s class will complete Emergenetics training and receive public speaking training from ARTiculate. The CBA is honored to help usher in this new crop of leaders.
Adrienne Fischer
Adrienne Fischer is a Denver-based lawyer who creates quality, accessible, and comprehensive legal solutions to help her clients reach their peak. She began her career as an employment litigator after graduating from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Since founding Basecamp Legal in 2016, she has found she is happiest when she is helping growing companies find legal solutions that are right for them. She has represented hundreds of small businesses and startups, helped her clients raise millions in funds, and protected her clients’ brands. She has been a speaker at Denver Startup Week multiple times and recently served as a mentor for REI Co-op’s Path Ahead Ventures’ Embark Program. Adrienne is licensed in California, Colorado, and Idaho.
Amy Lopez
Amy Lopez serves as senior assistant university counsel at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. She previously served as general counsel to the Colorado State Personnel Board and the Colorado Medical Board licensing panel with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Before that, Amy spent eight years at the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office. Amy received her JD from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She is a member of the Colorado Women’s Bar Association and the Junior League of Denver. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, baking, running, fostering dogs, and all the outdoor activities that Colorado has to offer.
Chandler Grant
Chandler Grant is a chief deputy district attorney in the First Judicial District. He is currently assigned as a chief overseeing four attorneys, and he has tried more than 100 cases to a jury. He grew up in North Dakota and attended the US Air Force Academy from 2000 to 2004. He spent five years as an officer and special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations before attending the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Chandler is a member of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council Training Committee and loves to teach and present. He and his wife Dana have three boys, ages 11, 9, and 7. He enjoys puzzle books, board games, and sports.
Claire Mueller
Claire Mueller is an associate at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, where her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, corporate control disputes, personal injury defense, and real estate disputes. Her experience includes representing clients before juries, appellate courts, arbitrators, and mediators, and she has represented clients from the legal, energy, automobile, aerospace, and construction industries, among others. Before joining DGS, she received her JD from the University of Texas School of Law. Claire currently serves on the board of directors of Family Star Montessori and is a graduate of the Denver Metro Leadership Foundation’s Impact Denver program. She also maintains an active pro bono practice, where she often uses her skills as a fluent Spanish speaker.
Codi Cox
Codi Cox is an associate attorney at Martin Hild, P.A., where she focuses her practice on complex construction litigation and represents clients, both large and small, through all phases of litigation. Before joining Martin Hild, Codi spent a year in France studying at the University of Dauphine Paris and earned an LLM in international business law. She received her JD from Saint Louis University and holds an MBA from Regis University. During law school, Codi completed an externship at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and spent a summer in Lima, Peru, interning with Berninzon & Benavides Abogados. She founded the Students for Mental Health and Wellness organization and was staff editor for the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law. Codi sits on the board of directors for the Collaborative Healing Initiative Within Communities. She is a member of the Colorado Women’s Bar Association, the Denver Bar Association, and the National Association of Women in Construction.
Hannah Westmont
Hannah Westmont is a partner with Polidori, Franklin, Monahan & Beattie LLC and has concentrated her practice in the area of domestic relations law throughout her career. In 2019, she was awarded the George Holley Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award from the First Judicial District. She co-wrote a 2016 article for Colorado Lawyer entitled “Who’s Their Daddy: Navigating Allocation of Responsibilities and Paternity Actions” and has lectured on the same topic. Hannah serves as treasurer of the CBA Family Law Section executive council and served on the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Board of Directors from 2016 to 2021.
Hayden DePorter
Hayden DePorter (they/them) is an appellate law clerk at the Colorado Court of Appeals. Hayden is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which has led to speaking engagements across Colorado and beyond. They won the inclusive excellence award from the University of Denver, as well as the summit scholar award from the Colorado LGBT Bar Association. Hayden is currently on the Colorado LGBT Bar Association Board of Directors, a member of the CBA Professionalism Coordinating Council, and a member of the Governance Group at the Colorado Court of Appeals. Hayden received their JD from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Isabel Broer
Isabel Broer is an assistant attorney general in the K-12 Education Unit of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Isabel co-chairs the office’s Legal Internship Program and founded and leads its diversity, equity, and inclusion book club. She previously clerked for Justice Monica M. Márquez and Judge Christine M. Arguello and graduated from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school, Isabel taught ninth-grade algebra in the Denver Public Schools. Isabel lives in Denver with her husband Brian. She enjoys skiing, hiking, camping, and reading in her free time.
Jennifer Cuesta
Jen Cuesta is the rural pro bono program attorney for Colorado Legal Services. Jen began working with CLS in 2015, on its Pro Bono Innovation Fund Grants. Through the grants, Jen developed and still manages clinic models that recruit metropolitan attorneys to serve rural Coloradans by using technology to bridge the geographic gap. Jen also has a caseload focused on records sealing, and she handles cases from the Northwest Colorado Legal Services Project, an office of CLS. She serves on the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association board and is a member of the national Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Taskforce. She received her JD from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and is a three-time alumnus of AmeriCorps.
Jennifer Perry
Jen Perry is an associate at Ridley McGreevy Winocur. She joined the firm in October 2022 after spending nearly seven years as a trial attorney for the Office of the State Public Defender in the Brighton regional office. She graduated from the University of Colorado Law School in 2014.
John Arceci
John Arceci is senior counsel at the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Denver, where his practice focuses on federal criminal appeals across the Tenth Circuit and complex motions practice in the district courts of Colorado and Wyoming. A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, he joined the Federal Public Defender after clerking in federal and state courts and has spent his entire legal career as a public defender. John is a member of the Tenth Circuit’s Pattern Criminal Jury Instruction Committee and frequently presents on the topics of appellate practice and procedure, and emerging issues in federal criminal law.
Laurence Gendelman
Laurence Gendelman is an attorney, child and family investigator, and partner at Gendelman Klimas, Ltd. His practice focuses on the intersection of family, juvenile, and probate law. Laurence has served as the secretary of the Committee on Rules and Forms for the CBA Trust and Estate Section and is a past president of the Colorado LGBT Bar Association. He currently serves on the Denver Bar Association’s Board of Trustees as the diversity bar chair. He graduated from the University of Colorado Law School in 2015.
Melanie Jordan
Melanie Jordan is the case strategy director and legislative liaison at the Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel, where she supports trial and appellate attorneys and works to create policies that better support family preservation and parent engagement. Previously, she had her own practice representing parents and children at both the trial and appellate levels. After graduating from the University of Colorado Law School in 2009, Melanie started her legal career as a family law attorney. Before becoming a lawyer, Melanie worked with foster youth and unhoused people at local nonprofits.
Nathan Fall
Nathan Fall is legal counsel for Greeley-Evans School District 6, where he enjoys handling a variety of issues related to public education. After graduating from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2019, Nathan worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Susan Blanco in the 8th Judicial District. In his free time, he enjoys backcountry snowboarding and road biking with his wife and exploring all that Colorado has to offer.
Pawan Nelson
Pawan Nelson is an assistant attorney general in the Transportation Unit of the Colorado Department of Law, where he handles litigation matters in federal, state, administrative, and arbitral forums. He previously worked at private law firms in New York City and Denver, handling antitrust and commercial litigation. Before becoming a lawyer, Pawan taught in an elementary school in the Bronx. He received his JD from Columbia Law School in 2009, his MS in teaching from Pace University in 2006, and his BA from Harvard University in 2004.
River Sedaka
River Sedaka hails from Toronto, Canada, where they graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in equity studies, political science, and sociology. After a 10-year career in the private sector, River moved to Chicago to study law at Northwestern University. Following law school, River accepted a job at the appellate division of the Colorado State Public Defender, where they serve Colorado’s indigent criminal defendants on complex cases and high-level felonies in the Colorado Supreme Court and Colorado Court of Appeals. River is a founding co-chair of the state public defender’s LGBTQ+ affinity group, a member of the LGBT and Disability bar associations, a graduate of the Colorado Diverse Attorney Community Circle, a member of the CBA’s Council on Equity and Inclusive Excellence, and a facilitator of a diversity, equity, and inclusion and social justice book club. In their spare time, River enjoys partaking in Colorado’s many wilderness activities, immersing themselves in science fiction and fantasy worlds, and playing with their friends’ dogs.
Scott Goebel
Scott Goebel focuses his law practice on giving back to the Western Slope community, where he grew up. As a first-year associate at Dufford Waldeck Law, located in Grand Junction, he enjoys working on a variety of legal matters. This includes litigation, real estate transactions, business formation, landlord-tenant issues, land use, estate planning, probate, construction defects, and HOA issues. Out of the office, he enjoys outdoor activities, working on his family’s vineyard, attending concerts, traveling, and spending time with his fiancée.
Wesley Parks
Wesley Parks is a mediator and attorney, and the owner of Parks Mediation. He is contract mediator for the Colorado Office of Dispute Resolution and the Colorado Department of Education. He teaches mediation and negotiation, and alternative dispute resolution as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He continues to practice law as special counsel with Cohen & Cohen, P.C., in Denver. Wesley mediates disputes in the areas of family law, special education, bankruptcy, probate, personal injury, HOA, and civil litigation matters. He is the current chair of the CBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Section. Wesley frequently volunteers at Court Mediation Services in Denver County and Metro Volunteer Lawyers. He was a 2021 Denver Bar Association Pro Bono All Stars award recipient. He enjoys tennis, hiking, and skiing during his leisure time.
Zeyen Wu
Zeyen Wu hails from the South Side of Chicago, graduated from UCLA School of Law in 2012, and joined the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado in 2013. He has been handling affirmative civil rights cases for the office since 2016, which includes evaluating complaints, conducting pre-litigation investigation, negotiating settlements, and litigating cases under a variety of federal civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. He has also handled False Claims Act cases and defended civil litigation against federal agencies in a variety of areas.
Explore This Issue
Ballot Measures
Government Counsel
By Gavin Wolny
