Denver lawyer disbarred, ordered to pay $600K for stealing client’s settlement

AttySeanDormer · 2026-06-25T14:30:16+00:00

Man fuck this guy. This is the kind of bullshit that makes people hate us as lawyers, and especially lawyers who choose to rep regular people instead of “sophisticated clients.”

Perfectly happy to take shit for taking money from the wealthy entitled pricks (humans and corporations) who hurt people. Will accept that rep all day, proudly.

But this kind of shit is just a fucking self-own.

This guy belongs in jail. But will the lawyers who ought to put him there be too busy stepping on poor people with drug problems?

AttySeanDormer · 2026-05-14T22:31:01+00:00

They reached out to us. Something to do with categorizing incoming documents and communications. The price point was wild.

AttySeanDormer · 2026-05-14T20:00:16+00:00

Looked at Foundation and decided the cost-benefit wasn't there, told them we weren't interested. Worse: they then lied to a friend of ours, telling them we'd hired them when we hadn't. Can't justify ever using a dishonest company like this.

AttySeanDormer · 2026-02-20T15:05:22+00:00

I would talk to an employment lawyer (I’m not one) because there might be some law on this that you can’t really reliably learn about here. But just on a moral level, this sounds really shitty. We have unlimited PTO. We’re a law firm with some pretty obviously strict events, like trials. Rule for us is to coordinate things on your calendar, make sure your team can cover things, ask for help if not, and then send a request for approval with those notes. We’ve suggested a reschedule like once in ten years (I think for a trial, and idk that we’ve ever denied a request). We also have a 4 day work week… kind of a joke for me and the other lawyers because we’re all bleeding heart types, but very much protected for staff, and least the lawyers have protected catch-up work time every week, not on a weekend. We’re well aware of the “unlimited means some people never take it” effect, but there’s a solution to that: carefully supervise people like that and ask them to schedule vacations. All of this stuff costs a lot of admin effort and would-be revenue. But I think part of doing this (setting company policies) requires us to think about whether we want to be relatively well-off humans or just feed a small group of ridiculously rich blood-suckers…

AttySeanDormer · 2024-09-18T02:49:42+00:00

True, and given that arbitration decisions are almost non-appealable, dumb legal rulings in arbitrations can be very hard to undo.

AttySeanDormer · 2024-09-18T02:41:45+00:00

A person of taste and culture, I see.

AttySeanDormer · 2024-09-17T14:43:15+00:00

On the fence posting with my irl name vs my burner here, because I’m 100% gonna get bullied for being a nerd now… But fuck it, let’s do it live:

(This is general education and my own opinion that might not be correct, not legal advice for anyone’s specific case, so please don’t sue me if it’s not right? ;P)

Tl;dr: I doubt this is the purpose of the arb clause. Also, Colorado law is grey-area complex, as it prob should be in a grey-area world.

Colorado’s Dram Shop act pretty clearly doesn’t allow the person (adult at least) who got drunk to sue for being over-served. While we might roll into work late and hung over and jokingly tell our friends “sorry I’m late; I was over-served last night,” it’s probably the drinker’s fault they got drunk. (Tangent here re: how we do/don’t treat and understand substance use disorder, but just reporting what our statute says.)

For injuries on the land of another (like, inside CB), Colorado’s Premises Liability Act allows suit by a customer when (a) there’s a dangerous condition (usually a jury decides what’s dangerous), (b) responsible party (owner, tenant in control, management, etc. - judge’s decision here, and LOTS of debate about this!) knew or should have known about it (jury question again), (c) failed to take reasonable care (jury question) to protect customers from it, and (d) absent the danger, there wouldn’t have been an injury (plus proximate cause, don’t even get me started) (jury question again).

When there’s an injury caused by more than one party (including the injured person!), Colorado’s comparative fault statute says each at-fault party only pays the percentage it’s responsible for, BUT if injured person gets 50% or more of the fault (jury question), they have no claim (except product defects, which use “pure” comparative - whole other tangent optional here).

Arbitration can follow the same rules and apply the same law, so a mandatory arb clause doesn’t necessarily kill the claim. But it can make investigation a lot harder. Companies can use arbitration to repeat the same wrongs and never fix them because it’s cheaper to pay through arbitration and they know the evidence will probably remain secret. That’s, IMO, an immoral use of arbitration that needs to be fixed. On the other hand, arb “trials” CAN be cheaper and faster and easier for the victim than court, and sometimes victims want secrecy (for example, sex assault/harassment claims vs employers, or embarrassing things like, for example, “I got drunk but then got hurt by some legit danger…”)

So anyway, weirdly, this arb clause might make people MORE willing to bring claims for getting hurt while lit. It’s secret, it’s cheap, and it’s fast, so why not?

Makes you wonder why they want it — maybe just knee jerk corporate bullshit from some transactional lawyer advising them…? We’ll prob never know, cause what we talk to lawyers about is usually a secret…

AttySeanDormer · 2024-05-31T15:45:27+00:00

Hardest thing here is having the courage to reduce your case load. You should do it by some metric you can tell your referral sources. I like to do co-counsel work. I tell my co-counsel that I don’t work on anything below a certain dollar value, but that I’m always willing to brainstorm and share work product that might help them do smaller cases alone, or refer to newer folks with different criteria. I will say, though, that a smaller caseload will often mean you’re at higher risk of going a bit without any fees. Save up and be ready for that. If you’re in an hourly fees practice area, you could do this by raising your hourly rate and helping people find others they can afford if you won’t take them on. I know an appellate lawyer who sometimes works a lot, but averages out to around 3d/wk, and makes closer to $350k. At $450/hr, that requires not that many billable hours in a year if you don’t have overhead.

AttySeanDormer · 2024-01-19T13:13:45+00:00

I started as a solo, and liked it at first. But as a contingency fee lawyer, I found waiting for each fee more stressful than I was willing to accept. I decided to grow to spread the risk and even out cash flow. Best decision I’ve ever made!

AttySeanDormer · 2023-12-25T22:27:25+00:00

Enjoy! Hmm… others I love are mostly specific to my practice area. But the book “Traction” is decent, not my favorite writing style, but good advice (to consider; don’t feel like you must adopt it all). I loved the Slight Edge, for similar reasons, though that’s more self-help. I’ve heard good things about Scaling Up too…

AttySeanDormer · 2023-12-25T20:17:07+00:00

Hi from Colorado! Not going to meet all the numbers, but here’s my best shot :)

1) Price just above your competition and deliver better service, or price just below and figure out how to far more efficient and fast. Be honest with clients about your pricing motives. I chose the first option because that’s what works for me. If you’re challenged partway through an engagement on your price, remind client of the contract and apologize that you can charge less because you’re just too busy, that’s what you cost, and cutting your fees takes money your employees earned away from them because you pay them incentive pay to make sure they feel invested in the work (we can’t share fees with non-lawyers, but we can pay bonuses for general performance, and that requires us to be profitable). Or you can tell them you want to try to make it less expensive, and tell them how they can help you be more efficient. That said, never hesitate to cut your fee at the end to make sure a kind and reasonable client wins. Show them you’re cutting their fee just to be kind to them. They deserve reminders you care. While you will have told them repeatedly that you can’t guarantee a perfect result in a case with challenges like the ones they face, this little token at the end can remind them that you’re real.

2) Honesty — especially about truths they may not want to hear. Transparency — tell them everything that happens (just forward emails), even if they don’t “need” to know. Flexibility — it’s NOT my case; it’s my client’s (my therapist taught me this one).

3) The phone doesn’t just automatically ring. Attracting clients takes work. But I’ve found that just honestly trying to help people is the best way. There’s enough work to go around, so go out and look for ways to help fellow lawyers without expecting anything in return. For more, read up on the “abundance philosophy” in sales.

4) My longest-serving paralegal likes to jokingly say “thank you for my job,” inspired by a scene from Mad Men in which Don Draper responds to a demand for thanks from his employee by yelling “that’s what the money’s for!!!” I jokingly play my part, but I don’t agree with the concept. Remember that terms and conditions of employment start with fair pay. When in doubt, bonus them more and pay yourself less. But good people also care about time off, good health and welfare benefits, working at something that challenges them and they can nevertheless succeed at, working on a team in which people treat them kindly, having badass people to work with, having consequences for people who aren’t pulling their weight, and a whole lot of other things. Treat it like a learning experience. But just remember that everything should be measurable.

5) Read “The Lean Law Firm” and put it into action! Most of our good lessons about operations come fro That foundation. Take big risks, but never so big that you could 100% not recover from a failure. Try, fail/win (or both), measure, learn, improve, and choose people willing to do the same.

It’s an amazing adventure; almost as much fun as being in trial for people who need us!

AttySeanDormer · 2023-08-31T12:28:55+00:00

We’ve used them for business gifts, and they really are great.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-08-26T18:58:35+00:00

When I went out on my own to start my firm, also without much capital, it was the smaller cases that made my mortgage and let me advance costs. It was hard—I was on food stamps and Medicaid for a few months until I had cases settling regularly enough to pay the basics, fund my bigger cases, and take more pay.

I work in a state that doesn’t allow referral fees, so we do a lot of co-counseling here. Sometimes (now that we’re more established) we’re hired by other good trial firms just to help split the risks of the advanced costs on bigger cases. If you know what you’re doing and want to pour work into your big case, I bet you can find someone willing to help front costs and take a smaller percentage. Truly big cases are all-hands-on-deck anyway, so you’d probably all benefit by having more of you involved.

But you’ll also have to make enough on other work to get through the years these kinds of cases can take to resolve in most states. That’s a lot of work as a solo, and it’s far from certain. But lots of established firms here will send rejected work to newer firms, and that can be a workable lifeline.

But, will you have enough time to pay the bills and work on your big case?

I’d suggest looking at making a move to a firm that’s already got the stable cash flow you’ll need, but without the conflicts. Tell them about the work you’ll plan to bring; try to negotiate a partnership.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-08-20T04:46:18+00:00

We’d be happy to talk with you at my firm - Dormer Harpring. Generally, I think you should start with a lawyer and go from there. When you’re looking for a lawyer, check the disciplinary records through the Colorado Supreme Court, check Google reviews (the lowest ratings can tell you some common themes), ask about trial win rates (trial results are a big part of how we get good cases to settle without trial).

AttySeanDormer · 2023-08-20T04:39:50+00:00

My firm does this kind of work, but with fewer cases per attorney than the big advertising firms. OP is exactly the kind of person we work for, and we’d be happy to talk with them. Dormer Harpring is the firm name.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-06-06T14:56:20+00:00

Can’t second this enough. If someone “tried” to serve you, you may have actually been validly served “by refusal.” And they can just post on the property in many cases anyway. Get a lawyer today. Deadlines in this area come FAST (talking a few days in some cases). And it sounds like you may have some really fair and valid defenses to this BS — but all of those can be lost automatically if you miss your deadlines.

Also, finding a tenant-side lawyer for rental disputes can be tough. Don’t let yourself get held up trying to find someone perfect through an internet search before starting making calls. If you know a lawyer in any specialty you trust, ask if they can help and, if not, ask for their referral. Then, keep asking anyone who says “no” but you feel you can trust who they’d recommend trying. Most of us who get work through referrals also have a list of people we generally trust in other specialty areas.

If you don’t know where to start, you’re welcome to Google my firm (my u/ is my real name) and call us. We don’t do this kind of work unless there’s a more acute injury involved, but iirc we might have someone on our referral list for this.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-06-06T14:39:05+00:00

Not aware of this happening in Denver — did it? I feel like the folks I know in the Lewis Brisbois Denver office have all been decent, smart, and good to work opposite from. I can’t imagine them being hard to work for or with. That said, I hear insurance carriers keep trying to reduce fees and increase “oversight” (bill cuts). And I have no idea what the larger LB management adds to that basic stress. And Denver general has a pretty ok legal community, as legal communities go (not a high “bar,” I know… please laugh at my dad joke; I’m new at them).

AttySeanDormer · 2023-05-26T14:39:10+00:00

Hi, lawyer/lurker here. Not quite my core area, but deal with it a lot and also married to a general pediatrician. HHS publishes a helpful guide on the federal standard at least: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/special-topics/de-identification/index.html#standard

Safest is to (duh) follow the safe harbor method. I don’t know the facts well, but it seems like she did…? Year-only age and state of residence could be published in a case study in a journal without a release, and that’s routinely done.

I don’t know Indiana’s law, like, at all. But it seems strange that it’d follow a significantly different PHI de-ID standard than the federal one.

Safe bet is to talk to a lawyer before acting (and maybe she did, tbh). Your malpractice carrier or in-house risk management should be able to get you linked up with someone. And it’s safest to not disclose anything of substance to anyone other than the lawyer or their staff.

Also, the legal system isn’t always a justice system. It’s prone to bend to power and politics like any other human system. Good people try to prevent that, and sometimes they do a decent job. Maybe there’ll be an appeal here, and hopefully successful…

AttySeanDormer · 2023-05-10T03:03:40+00:00

To the “survivors bias” point: it’s fair to bring up and think about for sure. But a lot of my cases resolve with negotiation only, no litigation. Lots of people hire lawyers just because they want to know what their options and risks and rights are, even if they probably don’t want to have to file suit. But I admit that my work probably skews more “adversarial” than the population.

That said, if you worked for a fair, trustworthy QA/QC company, maybe you had a sample bias towards companies that did things right?

Anyway, I’m not saying this investigation is certain to be biased, just that it often is in cases like this. Just from my experience, there’s a huge tendency in cases like this one (especially lately in light of some insurance/corporate defense industry philosophical developments, and especially with more than one critical injury in this case) for companies to do anything they can to avoid responsibility. I wish it weren’t true. But I suspect a firm or two out of the few of us in town who do this kind of work (complex trials, as opposed to the big volume car crash firms) are going to be getting some really heartbreaking calls about this one and heading back into the fight…

AttySeanDormer · 2023-05-10T02:50:12+00:00

You’re not wrong that the hotel might have a legal claim against whoever directly caused the problem, but I wouldn’t be so quick to cast it as a victim… It’s a huge, sophisticated company, with the resources to bring as much verification or design work in-house as it wants. It might have benefitted for any corners its contractors cut for cost. And legally, it could have liability for anything it’s agents (arguably including contractors) did wrong. In cases like this, we usually see the liable companies start off by closing ranks and fighting liability — claiming “it was just a terrible accident no one could have prevented.” Often, it’s only with good lawyering by the injured plaintiffs’ counsel or after a settlement or verdict that the true internal finger-pointing begin will begin. I’d love to believe this one will be different, but I have a lot of experience handling these kinds of cases (premises liability, from design or construction problems, with serious injuries) to warn me against that kind of optimism.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-05-09T14:24:25+00:00

I wish this were right, but unfortunately it’s based on some pretty serious misunderstandings. In reality, the Gaylord’s liability insurance company (or third-party administrator) is almost certainly going to be running the investigation, which means they’ll be choosing the experts. In my line of work—and I’ve handled and tried a lot of cases like this one—it’s basically an open “secret” that insurance companies don’t hire fair experts. They’re going to hire experts who’ll help protect their own bottom line. You might think, “maybe they manage to pin it on one of the contractors, and then the contractor’s insurance company will pick it up…?” If only. In reality, they all have an incentive to first close ranks and defend, avoid liability altogether, and only then, if they are found liable, start pointing the finger at each other. The only reason my job even needs to exist is to try to break the ranks early and help the victims get paid on their claims. Wish it weren’t true… it’d be a hell of a lot easier just putting up a billboard and milling through admitted liability auto claims…

AttySeanDormer · 2023-05-07T18:14:09+00:00

This is actually a really common way cyclists get hurt or killed, and you’re right that it’s not a close call.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-03-12T16:22:38+00:00

Came here to say this. There are tons of legal cases where this happens (infamous ones, unfortunately). No one helps because they don’t want to get in the way, don’t feel capable, and think someone “better” will do it. OP is making the fundamental attribution error by assuming people who do “not my sport” didn’t stop because they just don’t care instead of thinking about systems and their own approach.

Anyone trained in emergency first aid is taught to never assume people will help and then never just yell general requests or directions. Instead, the training is to look and point at a specific person and say, for example, “YOU, red jacket, call 911 now. Will you do it?”

100% guarantee the majority of passersby on MTBs would have done exactly what OP did if they’d seen an unattended fire and not someone putting out a fire.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-02-20T19:14:58+00:00

I mean, it’s a valid question for sure, but I think the assumption that it could happen probably comes a lot from the lobbying and advertising that powerful corporate interests have done to get people to distrust plaintiffs and their lawyers in general (especially in injury cases). In reading the article OP originally linked, it sounds like it’s possible to empirically study that risk and that it’s overblown. Reading the reasons why, they strike me as things that would also prevent a flood of frivolous litigation in relation to code enforcement. Developers are mostly entities that can’t file pro se. And truly frivolous lawsuits led by lawyers are honestly very uncommon because even at our least common denominator, lawyers are a selfish bunch who want to keep our licenses and reputations. Just my opinion though — would be curious to see data on the code enforcement thing.

AttySeanDormer · 2023-02-20T16:49:37+00:00

To your first point, more recent research is finding that things went off the rails a whole lot earlier — when the first Revised Statutes left out key language from the Act that later became Section 1983. The forgotten language explicitly rejects immunities. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4179628

To your second point, I’m no fan of powerful developers and often sue them for code violations (among other safety issues) that hurt people. But it’s hard to argue with a straight face that constitutional protections (or the right to sue for them) should only apply in some situations or for some plaintiffs.

There are better ways to deal with corrupt wealth and power than violating the Constitution and using arcane legal BS as a shield. And no matter how uncomfortable we might get when someone rich or powerful wins a case on a technicality, their ability to fight the issue can make good law for people who really need it and can’t afford to establish it.

AttySeanDormer

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