You're hiring a professional to manage your Colorado family law case.  This means you need to know you can trust the lawyer to look out for your best interests, and the lawyer owes you the duty to keep you informed and involved in the process.

Truth

You deserve the truth, not puffery or misplaced optimism.  As your lawyer, I will never shade the truth.  Instead, I give you an honest and realistic appraisal of your situation, so you can make an informed choice how to proceed.  Our firm already has all the business we can handle - how does this help you?

• We don't run up unnecessary legal fees on your case to make a living - between the real work which your case will need, and the other clients who need our help, we have plenty of work.  So we're not going to make what is already an expensive proposition even worse by running up unnecessary fees or urging you to fight on a losing issue an an effort to squeeze more money out of you.
• We fight for you when it makes sense, and we advise you when fighting makes no sense.  You don't want to spend $1000 in lawyer's fees fighting on a $500 sofa.  But if you're battling over a $20,000 retirement plan or $50,000 of maintenance payments, $1000 or more in attorney's fees is a more worthwhile investment.
• I never present a rosy scenario to you.  If your chances are good, I'll tell you.  If they are poor, I'll also tell you.  I'd rather you know what to expect, then spend the rest of our attorney-client relationship explaining to you why I couldn't deliver on promises I had no business making in the first place.

Referrals are an important part of our business, but unhappy clients don't remember their lawyers very fondly!  We won't promise something we know we can't deliver - that would be an unscrupulous "bait & switch".  To the extent anyone can actually "like" their lawyer, our clients like us - they refer their friends, coworkers and family to us, and they come back if they need legal services in the future.  

Aggression

Aggressive representation does NOT imply being unnecessarily rude, or snarling at your spouse and opposing counsel.  There are lawyers out there who will fight to put on a show, pound the table, shout, fire off nasty letters, etc.  Not us.  You're hiring a professional to represent your legal interests, not a street punk.  We don't engage in abusive discovery, name calling, nor storm out of meetings.  Lawyers are not easy to intimidate - such tactics may please an embittered client, but they do not help the case.

I share the philosophy of Teddy Roosevelt - "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."  No theatrics - just practicing law with competence, wisdom, and experience.  If we can't persuade the other side to accept your position, instead of having a temper tantrum, we devote our efforts to convincing the judge at trial. I believe I know what it takes to win - preparation, skill, knowing the system, and having a realistic position, so I approach a case with the quiet confidence that we're not afraid to litigate when necessary.

To be philosophical again, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.  I try to get along with the counsel and client on the other side, instead of unnecessarily alienating them.  This means treating them courteously, with respect, not missing deadlines, and not misleading them.  There are enough real fights in a divorce which are unavoidable that you don't need to manufacture more.  Trying to maintain a professional relationship with the other side helps the client much more than one where we battle needlessly on every single issue, regardless of how trivial.

This does NOT mean selling the client down the river - we do not shy away from a fight when necessary, but we don't go out of our way to fight for the "fun" of it.  My track record of successful litigation demonstrates a commitment to fight for clients.  But we save our energy, and your attorney's fees, by fighting on issues which matter to you, not on pointless battles on issues you won't win, or don't care about.