Ron Sandgrund, Attorney

Ron Sandgrund is the state's most prolific author of articles and books on Colorado construction and materials defect law, and related insurance coverage issues.  He has argued many cases before the Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Supreme Court and U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Sandgrund files friend of the court (amicus) briefs expressing homeowner-advocacy groups' views.  Court opinions have referred to his writings.

Mr. Sandgrund was born in New York in November, 1957 and moved to Colorado in 1979 to attend the University of Colorado School of Law from which he graduated in 1982. Mr. Sandgrund previously obtained a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology and English from the State University of New York at Albany in 1979, graduating magna cum laude. Mr. Sandgrund was a University of Colorado Law School trial advocacy instructor from 1994-2004. Before attending law school, he worked in a marine laboratory on the Atlantic Coast . Mr. Sandgrund handles civil trials and appeals.

Mr. Sandgrund also lectures to the public and teaches continuing legal education and graduate courses on insurance, construction and civil liability matters. He has authored many articles on these same issues. Mr. Sandgrund co-authored with his partner, Scott Sullan, Residential Construction Law in Colorado, first published in 2005, the second edition of which came out in 2007.  He co-wrote a chapter on residential construction in the multi-volume treatise The Practitioner's Guide to Colorado Construction Law (Robert Benson, ed.), first published in 1999, with a most recent publication date of 2007.  Mr. Sandgrund and Mr. Sullan also co-wrote Residential Construction Defect Litigation, published in 2000.

Mr. Sandgrund also co-authored with Scott Sullan "Class Counsel's Professional Responsibilities," a new chapter included in the legal ethics treatise Lawyers' Professional Liability in Colorado: Preventing Legal Malpratice and Disciplinary Actions, (2nd ed.) (Michael Mihm, editor) (CLE in Colorado, October 2009).

Mr. Sandgrund has served on Colorado Bar Association committees regarding inter-professional relations, court reform and employment law. He testifies frequently on behalf of homeowners before Colorado's legislature, and he has participated significantly in drafting laws affecting homeowner interests, including Colorado 's construction defect reform and homeowner protection statutes.

Mr. Sandgrund co-authored a seminal article concerning multi-family development liability called, "When the Developer Controls the Homeowner Association Board: The Benevolent Dictator?" found in the January, 2003, The Colorado Lawyer, a prominent Colorado law journal, as well as leading articles on Colorado's Construction Defect Action Reform Acts of 2001 and 2003, found in the October, 2001 and July, 2003 editions of The Colorado Lawyer. More recently, Mr. Sandgrund co-authored articles on "extrapolation" evidence and "useful life" evidence published nationwide in Mealey's Litigation Report: Construction Defects, Vol. 7, Iss. 4 (May 2006) [Another Perspective on Extrapolation Evidence] and  The Construction Lawyer , Vol. 27, No. 3, (Amer. Bar Assoc. Forum on the Construction Industry) (Summer, 2007) [Useful Life Evidence in Construction Defect Cases]. And, in 2009, Mr. Sandgrund co-authored "Shoddy Work, Neglient Construction and Reconciling the Irreconcilable," for The Colorado Lawyer, addressing the latest issues swirling around liability insurance for construction defects.

Journal articles co-authored by Mr. Sandgrund were chosen to be republished nationwide in the Thompson-West's Legal Handbook for Architects, Engineers and Contractors, in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 as reflecting cutting-edge thinking in construction litigation.

Mr. Sandgrund has extensive experience trying construction defect, product liability, and insurance lawsuits. Mr. Sandgrund served as co-counsel with his partner Scott Sullan in a class action trial in 1996, which trial resulted in a verdict on all liability issues presented to the jury. The case is believed to be the largest residential home expansive soils case ever tried to a jury.  In 1996, Mr. Sandgrund negotiated Colorado 's largest homebuilder construction defect related settlement on behalf of over 12,300 homeowners, and in 2005 he concluded a $32.5 million settlement on behalf of the owners of over 12,000 homes with defective and leaking windows.

Mr. Sandgrund joined the firm in 1982. He was managing partner from 1990 until late 2007. He became "Of Counsel" to the firm in October, 2007, but remains involved in select legal briefing, appellate work and insurance coverage matters. Mr. Sandgrund resides with his wife, Cheryl, in Boulder , where, if he is not attending to his practice, he usually is found on a tennis, racquetball, or basketball court, or on a hiking, skiing or mountain biking trail.