William Serge Wenzel
Member Spotlight
August 2025
Download This Article (.pdf)
Wil Wenzel owns Red Road Legal, a business law practice dedicated to advancing distributed ledger technology, and is the immediate past chair of the CBA Business Law Section. He describes himself as “the lawyer they almost never see coming.”
Hometown: Denver
Law School: California Western School of Law
Lives in: Denver
Works at: Red Road Legal, PC
Practice Areas: Business and Corporate Transactions and Litigation; Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Transactions
Pronouns: He/him
What do you like the most about your practice area?
My clients. They are people of passion and experience. Working alongside that passion and experience to accomplish their goals means that I get to learn from the very best teachers. Plus, starting and operating a business takes courage, so every day I get to see what day-to-day courage looks like.
What do you consider the most essential professional skill?
Careful and compassionate listening. A close second is asking questions instead of making statements or giving lectures.
What’s the best advice you’ve received?
My mentor shared his favorite phrase: “Oh well.” It isn’t a phrase of carelessness or abdication. Rather, it’s a simple way to say that sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but we always move forward from where we are without regret or fantasy.
What’s your best advice for a new lawyer?
That every case, every client, has a story. Listen for the story instead of imposing your own on the situation; get to the human aspect of the work. That will find the client’s real pain and help solve that pain directly, even if it’s not the most lucrative solution. Second piece of advice: study Brian Garner on legal argument writing. He breaks the mold, and it’s some of the most effective advice available.
What is your superpower and why?
Reading people. It’s a blessing and a curse.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I’m smitten with Vienna. The city has my heart, and I would go there anytime.
Favorite book of all time:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
Favorite local restaurant:
Somebody People on Broadway.
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Kaiserschmarrn; admittedly, eating only kaiserschmarrn, it’d be a short rest of my life.
On your desk right now:
Copious yellow pages of case notes. A karate trophy (I don’t do karate) featuring one person kicking another in the face. I had it engraved “‘Oh Well’ —Malcolm S. McNeil.” I had another made for him. Sometimes I’m the guy on the right, sometimes I’m the guy on the left. Oh well. There are also two small sandstones from the top of Bell Rock in Sedona. Near my desk are masks I’ve collected from around the world, a collection of hourglasses, and an actual trophy for third place in a pinball tournament.
What skill would you like to master?
Blues piano. I’ve taken it up at 43 years old. I’m rotten at it, I love it, and I embrace the suck. But I started taking lessons, and it’s one of my favorite things to do.
What is one thing you will never try again?
Climbing to the top of Bell Rock in Sedona. Barefoot. It remains the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Google describes getting to the very top as “a challenging, unmarked, and semi-technical climb, with the final ascent being a strenuous and hazardous scramble with a class 5 rating.” That about sums it up, except to say I had no idea what I was in for. I did it to impress my wife when we were dating; we got down alive and unharmed. Never again.
Explore This Issue
Is Your Client Really Selling Their Home “As Is”?
Contract Law
By Mark Cohen
