Welcome to the 5-0
Celebrating Our 50-Year Practitioners
March 2026
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These profiles are part of a series celebrating CBA members who are in their 50th year of practicing law. Many thanks to CBA member Marjorie Nanian for volunteering to write this series to help us showcase the experiences of these valued members of the Colorado legal community.
John A. Eckstein
License Date: 10/15/1975
To hear John Eckstein speak in his deep, soothing voice, one might have assumed he was destined for a career in broadcasting. Instead, Eckstein’s true passion was the law.
Eckstein’s family immigrated to the United States from Denmark, though they were ethnically German. He was born and raised in Iowa City to parents who were both educators. He attended the University of Iowa, where he majored in political science and history, before enrolling at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies to pursue a master’s degree in international economics.
After marrying Ledy Garcia, Eckstein continued his education at the University of Virginia School of Law while his wife pursued graduate studies of her own. In his law school application, he articulated a philosophy that would guide his career: “I believe that the law furthers the realization of our human creativity, and that is why I wanted to study law. I can work as an attorney in business with service for the public interest.”
That philosophy began to take shape in graduate school through his work for the Army at the Pentagon, and deepened in law school during his clerkship with the US Tariff Commission.
After law school, Eckstein worked for a large law firm in Indiana in the tax department. He did municipal bonds and corporate securities for six years. It was here that the young attorney found his mentors in tax, securities, and litigation. Eckstein believes that mentors are essential to a young lawyer’s success. “They will help you along the way, by taking you under their wing and showing you the ropes. In turn, you will need to pay it forward by becoming a good mentor to someone else.”
In 1981, Eckstein saw an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal for a corporate securities attorney with a Denver law firm. He applied, relocated, took the Colorado bar exam, and was admitted to practice on October 19.
One of his greatest achievements was in civic engagement when he lobbied to create the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute in 1983 and later served as its chair. Its purpose was to set up small tech companies with federal grants. It was the state’s leading organization in technology-based economic development and existed until 1999, when its responsibilities were transferred back to the Colorado Commission of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Innovation and Technology. While the Institute no longer exists, its legacy continues through other programs such as the Advanced Industries Accelerator Program.
One of the biggest changes Eckstein witnessed through his years of practice was the effect of the US Supreme Court ruling in 1977 allowing attorneys to advertise. Before Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977), the only way attorneys could indirectly obtain clients was through referrals. The Court ruled that lawyer advertising constituted commercial speech and was protected by the First Amendment. “This opened up many new possibilities for attorneys to become known,” says Eckstein.
Eckstein also recalls the use of minimum fee schedules for attorney services such as incorporations, divorce, and trials. But such a practice fell to legal challenges for antitrust concerns.
He is also concerned that advances in artificial intelligence will wipe out a lot of training opportunities for young lawyers. “It’s also going to be harder for new graduates to achieve levels of success now available to associates,” predicts Eckstein.
The now-retired Eckstein feels fortunate that he was able to witness his daughter, Maria Alexandra, follow in his footsteps. She was sworn in to practice by Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Rice in 2010 and now works at the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Another proud moment came in 2011 when the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado presented Eckstein with the St. Thomas More Award in recognition of his service to God, family, and the legal profession. He became a lawyer because he wanted to help people, he says, and his partners at the Colorado law firm of Fairfield and Woods let him do that. “There have been plenty of rough patches in my lawyer life, but faith, prayer, and other lawyers led me to the answers I needed.”
Judge William G. Meyer
License Date: 10/6/1975
Judge William Meyer (ret.) considers his greatest achievement to be the establishment of Colorado’s drug courts in 1994, an endeavor he led alongside then district attorney and future governor Bill Ritter. Through their efforts, Colorado became the 12th state in the nation to adopt this innovative model of specialized courts.
That milestone grew out of Meyer’s experiences as a district court judge for the Second Judicial District in Denver. After joining the bench in 1984, Judge Meyer observed a troubling pattern during his criminal docket rotations: many defendants cycled repeatedly through the justice system due to substance dependence. “Nobody chooses to become dependent on drugs,” he says—a belief that would shape the course of his career.
Meyer went on to write the Judicial Bench Book for drug courts and now teaches at the National Drug Court Institute. For more than four decades, he has been deeply committed to addressing substance abuse through education, reform, and advocacy.
Today, the retired judge serves as chair of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, known as All Rise. The organization works to improve the justice system’s response to substance use and mental health disorders and hosts the largest substance abuse conference in the world.
The Pennsylvania native didn’t initially set out to become a judge. After completing his undergraduate studies, he undertook a fellowship in public administration at George Washington University, where he realized that a bureaucratic career was not for him. He then accepted a teaching fellowship in political science in Idaho—but this experience also proved to be an imperfect fit, ultimately leading him to pursue a career in the law.
Meyer attended law school at night at the University of Denver while working at the district attorney’s office. After graduation, he was sworn in as a lawyer, and on the same day, he tried his first case in county court—which he promptly lost. The only redeeming point was that he was able to get all his evidence admitted.
It was during this time that Meyer met his greatest inspiration, the late Brooke Wunnicke. Wunnicke arrived in Colorado from Wyoming as the chief appellate attorney. “She was a wonderful teacher and a brilliant lawyer,” reminisces Meyer. “She taught me how to write and analyze. In the process, I learned the ethical practice of law from her.” A testament to her exceptional skill, Wunnicke graduated first in her law school class and, remarkably, never lost a trial.
Another profound influence on Meyer was court reporter Vivien Spitz, whom he was fortunate to have worked with while on the bench. Spitz had been the court reporter during the Nuremberg trials in Germany, from November 1945 to October 1946. Later she published a book called Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans. She died in 2014 at the age of 89.
Meyer has seen lot of changes in the law during his 50 years of practice, including the rise of paraprofessionals, the implementation of mandatory parenting classes for people going through a divorce, and the early use of problem-solving courts for high-risk offenders.
The energetic judge believes the justice system is starting to understand the emotional toll that handling assault, rape, or suicide cases takes on first responders. “How many cases can you handle before it impacts you?” he inquires. “At least now police officers and other first responders have the opportunity for counseling.”
But what about jurors, who have to hear the gruesome details and see bloody photographs? When Meyer was a sitting judge, he presided over the multiple-murder case People v. Fears, 962 P.2d 272 (Colo.App. 1997). The defendant, Kevin Fears, murdered two witnesses to the crime; a third witness survived and later identified and testified against him. The jury convicted Fears on two counts of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, and four other counts. The details were so disturbing that, after the verdict, Judge Meyer arranged for a psychologist to speak with the jurors about the potential long-term effects of their service on their mental health. “We truly ask a lot of our citizens,” concludes Meyer.
As for the future, the retired judge believes that more disputes will have to be resolved outside the court system, since the judiciary’s workload has gone up while court resources and staff have been reduced. “There will be more alternative dispute resolution services for civil cases,” predicts Meyer, “and judges will need more skill sets than before.”
In line with that prediction, Meyer owns the Judicial Arbiter Group, Inc. (JAG), which employes 28 former judges as mediators and arbitrators (their pictures are on the back page of this magazine). He still travels the country to teach at the National Drug Court Institute. One of the movies that he likes to use as a teaching tool is the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci as Vinny and Fred Gwynne (better known as Herman Munster) as the judge. “It’s a good example of Colorado Rule of Evidence 702 regarding opinion evidence by an expert.”
Nancy D. Miller
License Date: 10/6/1975
Nancy Miller grew up in the mountains and jungles of foreign lands. Her father was an agricultural advisor for the Near East Foundation, initially established in 1915 in response to the humanitarian crises created by the Armenian Genocide during World War I. It was America’s first international aid organization and provided aid to the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek victims. In 1919, it received a Congressional Charter and served as a role model for the Peace Corps and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
“It was a crushing blow when President Trump dismantled USAID,” states the former bankruptcy lawyer, “because I know from my father’s work how important it was to build relationships in these hot spots in the world and what good work he and his counterparts did.”
The North Dakota native grew up in Iran, Honduras, Ecuador, and Nigeria. Miller attended boarding schools in France as well as Rome, Italy, and speaks Spanish, some French, and Italian.
This exotic background spurred Miller’s interest to major in sociology and anthropology, and art history while attending Carleton College in Minnesota. From there, she attended law school at the University of Colorado, where her brother was also a student.
During law school, Miller clerked for Denver bankruptcy attorney Tom Sewell and then for Bankruptcy Judge Glen Keller. “I was amazed at what federal bankruptcy could do,” recalls Miller, “like overriding contracts, restructuring or eliminating debt, and stopping foreclosures.”
After graduation, Miller practiced law with Harry Sterling, Roger Simon, and others. “I tended to worry too much over deadlines and clients,” she recalls, “and sometimes I’d wish for a different outcome for my clients.”
Miller had her own law firm for 14 years, in which she employed her late brother as a paralegal. “Collaboration with other attorneys is a key to building a practice, and so is having a good staff,” she advises. Miller also served as counsel to a health care law firm.
Beyond her legal work, Miller was active in bar associations and was honored as a “Founding Mother” of the Colorado Women’s Bar Association. More recently, she has worked with the Tribal Wills Project, under the leadership of DU Law Professor Lucy Marsh. Miller was also active in POETS, a group of real estate attorneys who meet for monthly luncheons.
Fifty years of practice has brought with it a lot of changes, such as electronic filing. “This has significantly changed the practice,” reflects Miller. “Prior to this, attorneys had to go to the courthouse to file pleadings, so you needed to have your office near the courts. This helped to develop personal relationships.”
The retired lawyer believes the future of law will become increasingly specialized as legal issues grow more complex. She advises aspiring lawyers to shadow practicing attorneys and gain experience in a law firm to better understand the realities of legal work.
Presently, Miller is in a chaplain training program at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe. This is her newest passion.
Miller is grateful for the opportunity to have practiced law and for the friendships, guidance, and inspiration from the lawyers, judges, staff, clients, teachers who have helped her on this exciting path of lawyering.
Judge Thomas Moorhead
License Date: 11/7/1975
Retired Judge Thomas Moorhead knew at an early age that he wanted to be an attorney. He caddied at his hometown’s country club, surrounded by attorneys whose work fascinated him. He also had two uncles who were great lawyers (and whom he would later be lucky to work with). So single-minded was Moorhead’s focus on becoming an attorney that he never even imagined a plan B if the legal path didn’t work out.
The Cincinnati, Ohio, native attended Xavier University before heading to Kentucky to attend law school at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, named after the sixth chief justice of the US Supreme Court. Classes were held in the YMCA building just down the street from the courthouse until the school merged with Northern Kentucky University during Moorhead’s second year.
While in law school, Moorhead joined the US Army Reserves, choosing service over waiting for the draft, which could have meant a tour in Vietnam. Moorhead worked as a parole officer for the State of Ohio while attending law school in the evenings. After graduating in 1975, he spent 11 years at the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, rising to chief of the Major Trial Division.
After earning his stripes as a litigator, Moorhead joined Lindhorst and Dreidame in Cincinnati as a shareholder, diving into the world of civil litigation. But in 1992, he was ready for a change. Drawn by his passion for skiing and a desire for better weather, he relocated to the middle of Colorado and set roots down in Eagle County. “I was tired of running in the freezing rain in the Ohio River valley from November through March,” he explains.
In his new role as Vail town attorney, Moorhead worked on several significant initiatives, including the expansion of the ski area through a three-party Growth Management Agreement involving the Town of Vail, the US Forest Service, and Vail Resorts. One of the final negotiations took place on Vail Mountain, where representatives of all three parties and their counsel reviewed redlined documents while riding the Lionshead Gondola. At the summit, the participants secured the documents in their jacket pockets and skied back down to finalize the terms of the agreement. But the ski area expansion wasn’t without controversy. Opposition escalated dramatically when the Two Elk Lodge was destroyed by an arson fire, an act widely regarded as eco-terrorism.
After leaving that position, Moorhead served for one year as Eagle county attorney before being appointed by Governor Bill Owens to the Fifth Judicial District Court. In 2010, he was named chief judge.
Over the course of his judicial career, Moorhead witnessed significant changes in courtroom operations, including the elimination of bailiffs, constables, clerks, and court reporters. “Those positions were replaced by a tape recorder and a division clerk,” he recalls, “which placed considerable pressure on judges to complete their work with limited resources.”
Moorhead doesn’t point to a single defining achievement, but rather to a collection of experiences that shaped his approach to the bench. As a prosecutor, he observed that victims often felt disregarded or unheard. That awareness stayed with him as a judge, where he came to recognize that every person before the court was facing a profoundly daunting moment. “Each case had to be handled carefully,” he says, “because it was the most important case to that person.” He continues to carry those lessons into his current work as a mediator with the Judicial Arbiter Group, Inc. (JAG).
For young attorneys, Moorhead emphasizes the importance of finding strong mentors. He credits Judge Peter Craven of the Ninth Judicial District as an influential guide during his early years on the bench.
Beyond the courtroom, Moorhead has devoted considerable thought to personal leadership and empathy. Asked what he might address in a Ted Talk, he says he would focus on the frailties of the human condition—a reflection on the challenges people face and the importance of compassion. He points to his uncle, Dominic Perrino, as a model of that virtue. “He was the most empathetic human being I’ve ever met.”
Moorhead looks back on his career with deep satisfaction, noting that he relished the courtroom and the challenges it presented. If he could change one thing, he says, it would be marrying his wife, Lindsey Jean, earlier in his multifaceted career.
Stephen P. Rickles
License Date: 10/6/1975
“A sense of humor runs in our family,” says retired tax attorney Stephen Rickles. The resemblance to comedian Don Rickles is more than coincidental: the legendary entertainer was his father’s first cousin. Rickles met his famous relative only once, during a visit to Las Vegas, but the family affinity for wit has clearly endured.
That dry humor surfaced throughout Rickles’s recollections of a legal career that began far from Colorado. Born and raised in New York City, he earned a degree in political science from Boston University just as the Vietnam War draft lottery began in 1970. “Like thousands of other young men, I sat in front of the television watching birthdates scroll by,” he recalls. “My number was 224, and the draft board only reached 205 that year—so I was safe.”
Unsure of his next step, Rickles took a position at a mental health hospital. On a whim, he sat for the LSAT and was surprised by his strong performance, despite what he describes as “mediocre” undergraduate grades. That result led him to apply to—and be accepted by—the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, prompting a cross-country move with his wife. “DU was a very user-friendly law school,” Rickles notes, “quite different from where my youngest daughter later attended.”
While in law school and afterward, Rickles worked for trial attorney Ronald Pred (who would later become his client) after Rickles earned a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Denver. Pred proved to be an important early influence. “He was an ethical and conscientious lawyer who returned phone calls the same day,” Rickles recalled. “Mentorship is critical in a young attorney’s development.”
Following a series of professional transitions, Rickles eventually formed a boutique law firm with Peter Guthery, who introduced him to professional tax organizations that became a foundation for relationship-building and client development. Looking back, Rickles says he wishes he had focused earlier on developing networking skills. He recalls a prospective employer once telling him, “People who have technical expertise are a dime a dozen. I need people who can generate clients!”
Rickles also witnessed sweeping technological changes over the course of his career, from carbon paper and Mag Card typewriters to fax machines and modern computers. “Most would consider the fax machine to be obsolete,” he says, “but the IRS still accepts faxes.”
Reflecting on his professional accomplishments, Rickles cites earning a reputation among his peers as an authority in employee benefits as his most significant achievement. His path, however, was not without challenges. “Each new firm I joined ended up dissolving,” he says. “It made me feel as if I was cursed.” But since retiring in March, Rickles no longer worries about that bumpy path. Instead, he enjoys working out, traveling with his wife, and visiting their three children in different states.
What continues to concern Rickles is the future of the profession, particularly the impact of artificial intelligence on young attorneys. He anticipates that AI will reduce the number of entry-level legal positions and limit opportunities for mentorship as remote work becomes more common. While he sees AI increasingly handling legal research and drafting, he emphasizes its limits. “AI can’t generate business,” he notes. He advises aspiring attorneys to consider practice areas that require in-person engagement and judgment, such as trial litigation, real estate, banking, and arbitration.
For those contemplating a legal career, Rickles offers one final recommendation: watch The Paper Chase (1973), starring John Houseman as the formidable Professor Charles Kingsfield. “It offers an interesting look at our legal education system,” he says, “and the pressures involved in obtaining a law degree.”
Julia T. Waggener
License Date: 10/15/1975
Julia Waggener is a trailblazer. Her path began unusually early—she was accepted to law school before even taking the LSAT. When she entered California Western Law School in San Diego in 1972, there were only 12 women in her class. She completed law school on an accelerated timeline, and then moved to Vermont with her then husband, who had been accepted into medical school at Dartmouth.
Vermont, however, imposed an uncommon requirement: before new lawyers could practice, they had to clerk for six months in addition to passing the bar exam. At this point, Waggener was already six months pregnant, so she now faced the challenge of finding a clerkship while disclosing her pregnancy to prospective employers—no easy task in those days.
In a time before maternity leave or any female role models, she was hired by a small Vermont real estate law firm. Her mentor and boss, Frank Mahady, who later became a Vermont Supreme Court justice, had promised himself that he would hire a qualified female attorney because of the personal experiences of his wife, whom he had met in law school. Like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, his wife had been unable to find employment, despite having graduated first in their 1964 class from Georgetown Law School.
So Mahady fulfilled his promise and made Waggener the firm’s first female lawyer. She started work very pregnant and clerked at the firm through her daughter’s birth in March 1975, and then through the bar exam in July. In October 1975, she was only the 63rd woman admitted to the bar in Vermont’s history. “I began my law career in an amazing way,” reflects Waggener. “After I was sworn in by the Vermont Supreme Court in the morning, and shared coffee and donuts with the justices, I had an oral argument in front of them in the afternoon!” (Her client won the appeal).
Needless to say, the biographical dramas RBG and On the Basis of Sex are a few of Waggener’s favorite movies. Both portray Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early years of practice during the times when women were complete “outsiders” in the legal profession, having no role models and basically making things up for themselves as they went along, especially as professionals and mothers. “These were uncharted times for all of us,” comments Waggener.
In 1977, Waggener’s then husband obtained his medical residency in Colorado, so she moved to Denver with their 2-year-old in tow, and she took her second bar exam, as she did in Vermont, without taking a bar review course! She worked for several small Denver firms over her four plus decades in Colorado, focusing on real estate and commercial litigation and transactions.
Reflecting on her achievements, Waggener points to a major easement case she handled pro bono for the Colorado Lawyers Committee: Lobato v. Taylor, 71 P.3d 938 (Colo. 2002). The case arose in San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, and involved descendants of the area’s original Hispanic settlers. In the 1960s, Jack Taylor purchased a 75,000-acre property known as the Taylor Ranch and fenced it off, cutting off long-standing prescriptive easements that the San Luis plaintiffs and their predecessors had exercised for more than a century to log, harvest timber, and graze livestock.
Waggener served as one of several lead counsel representing the plaintiffs. The case reached the Colorado Supreme Court in 2002 and 2003 (having appeared there previously in 1994) and later the US Supreme Court, which remanded it to Colorado. After decades of litigation, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs held prescriptive easements, as well as implied easements by estoppel and by prior use. The decision became a leading Colorado case on easements.
Since retiring from her law firm in 2018, Waggener has been serving as a mediator and arbitrator for JAMS Denver. Earlier this year, she received the Willis Carpenter Leadership in Real Estate Award from the CBA Real Estate Section. Since Carpenter was one of her mentors, she is very proud of having received the award. Bar association participation has been and remains a very important part of her life. “It is key to establishing relationships and mentorships that serve us for our entire careers,” advises Waggener.
“I have spent 50 years doing deals, litigating about doing deals, and now mediating and arbitrating deals, and I have seen a lot of changes in the law.” One of the changes that has surprised Waggener has been how disconnected attorneys have become with each other. “During my mediation hearings, I am amazed at how some attorneys have never met or spoken with each other on the telephone. It used to be that attorneys would meet each other and get together to have coffee,” reflects Waggener. “We always had to go to court, so meeting each other was inevitable.”
Waggener believes that television helped change that culture and helped contribute to a negative image of lawyers. She cites LA Law as an example. It was a 1986 drama series, featuring a sleezy lawyer named Arnie Becker, played by Corbin Bernsen, who was an arrogant, self-serving divorce attorney with a desire to win every case regardless of the circumstances or ethics. “I believe that this character influenced a lot of young lawyers to view law as a combat sport and to disregard the importance of ethics and collaboration in the profession.”
As to the future of law, Waggener believes that AI is changing the way we live. “It affects all professions, including mediation,” she says, “but there is one area it can’t replace—personal problem-solving that involves compassion.”
As the daughter of an Episcopal minister, Waggener’s value system was greatly influenced by her progressive father. “He modeled ethics, integrity, and how to treat people fairly,” she reflects fondly. “He didn’t back down from unpopular causes, such as civil rights and admitting women into the clergy.” She is also proud of the fact that she raised three healthy, successful children, even though none of them followed in her footsteps (two became doctors like their dad). Today, in addition to her ADR practice, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Rick Foster—her former law partner, now retired—and the couple’s 11 grandchildren and extended families, as well as pursuing sports and traveling. This interview took place shortly after her return from France.
The energetic Waggener enjoys mentoring young lawyers and advises them to pursue their dreams, learn to advocate for themselves, and try to create more balanced professional and personal lives. “A legal career is a wonderful and honorable profession that we are lucky to pursue. It provides grounding in analyzing situations, problem-solving and dealing with people. You can use it for everything!”
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