lawyers within 20 miles of Wheat Ridge Colorado

Meet Carolyn Duncan Committed to addressing the most pressing concerns of our clients, I recognized the need to concentrate my focus on the estate planning strategies. Helping people through their most complex and often emotional decisions, I bring together thoughtful strategic planning, extensive knowledge of the latest legal thinking and economic policies and the foresight I’ve developed in over two decades of practice. I understand the emotional toll major life decisions can take. When my husband of 17 years fell ill and passed away, I was left wrestling with many wrenching decisions and complex legal hurdles. And when my mother was diagnosed with dementia and needed to be moved into an assisted living facility, the decisions, and legal ramifications were huge—as were the potential costs. These difficult experiences have shaped my approach to estate planning and family law, and they powerfully reaffirmed my commitment to helping my clients through their complex legal challenges. Whatever your unique situation may be, I am dedicated to sharing my knowledgeable and trusted voice as a fiercely advocates for your interests. My approach is deeply human, designed to amicably resolve disagreements as a first option, reducing the stress and mitigating many emotional triggers that death, business dissolution, or other shift in family or financial dynamics can release. By planning strategically and helping to eliminate the unknown, I offer peace of mind, ensuring protections for your family and the knowledge that your legacy is being preserved according to your wishes.

Dan has been practicing law since 1986. He began his career with the District Attorney’s Office followed by a term with the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Later, he became in-house counsel for an OTC securities registered Broker / Dealer. Prior to the formation of Levin Jacobson Japha, P.C. he counseled clients in private practice for many years. Dan has extensive experience in and focuses his practice on counseling businesses and handling partnership disputes; corporate law; private placement financing; regulatory compliance; business succession matters; mergers, acquisitions; employment issues; corporate and regulatory compliance; health care provider law; wills, estate and probate administration matters; divorce, custody family law and domestic partnership issues; personal injury accidents; and administrative law matters. He holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado and a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law. Dan is a member of the Trust and Estate, Family Law, and Business Law sections of the Denver, Colorado, and American Bar Associations, has been admitted to the U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He has written numerous articles on business law matters and has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, and represents a wide range of companies, commercial enterprises, medical providers, business owners and individual clients. Accomplishments over his 30-year career include obtaining a multi-million dollar jury verdict against a major telecommunications company; obtaining a million-dollar business saving verdict on behalf of a family-owned metal fabricating company; achieving a six-figure settlement in a restaurant personal injury case involving dangerously hot coffee spilling on a customer; negotiating numerous multi-million dollar private placement financings, mergers and acquisitions; negotiating and litigating numerous company partnership disputes and settlements, and negotiating purchase, product and supply contracts on behalf of many prodigious businesses.

Dave began his career as a prosecutor in the Denver District Attorney’s office. He then went to the US Attorney’s Office in Denver where he was the Coordinator for the Mountain States Drug Task Force as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force newly formed in 1982. In 1985, Dave was appointed by then Governor Lamm as the District Attorney for the First Judicial District of Colorado that includes Jefferson and Gilpin Counties. He was elected in 1993 and remained as the elected DA until 2005 when he was term limited. In 1987, Dave was appointed by Governor Romer to be the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. He held that position until he was elected District Attorney in 1993. During his tenure, he attended the Harvard University Executive Course for Senior Government Executives. Dave was the Executive Director of the District Attorney’s Council for three years in 2005. During that period, he was appointed by the Chief Judge for the Fifth Judicial District to be the Acting District Attorney in the Fifth Judicial District that includes Huerfano and Las Animas Counties. Dave joined Defense Attorneys Maureen O’Brien and Fred Bibik in 2008 where he practiced criminal defense until 2022. Dave joined with his daughter, Attorney Carrie Kollar, in October 2022 to January 2024. Dave’s background includes litigating sex crimes, DUIs, drugs, murder cases, crimes against children, felonies, traffic and financial crimes.

Over his more than three decades of practice, David Japha has earned a reputation for resolving difficult and complex matters, sometimes being the second or third lawyer to take on a case. David has tried many criminal and civil cases to conclusion and argued numerous appeals, post-conviction cases and cases involving mental health issues. He also currently represents clients in federal and state administrative matters, including ongoing matters before the Consumer Products Safety Commission. David got his start in litigation before leaving the University of Denver College of Law, where he tried his first DUI case in state court through a program called the student law office. He also negotiated settlements and argued his first administrative appeal before the Social Security Administration in the winter of 1984, before his law school graduation in May of that year. Soon after starting out, David shared office space with his current partners, Don Jacobson and Daniel Levin at Ptarmigan Place. There he learned law office management hanging out his shingle and doing evictions, collections and court-appointed federal criminal cases. And, it was there, in federal court, that David truly cut his teeth in criminal defense litigation, culminating in his appointment to the Criminal Justice Act committee (which oversaw the appointment of conflict counsel in federal court) by then-Chief Judge Richard Matsch. Over 30 years of practice has given David the opportunity to be involved in some amazing cases, including taking depositions in Katmandu, Nepal in a complex criminal case in 1991; representing a witness in the trial of Timothy McVeigh (where David was also a credentialed reporter for the Intermountain Jewish News); handling criminal matters in Nebraska, Kansas and California and appearing in Washington State. David has been an expert witness for the Colorado Supreme Court Office of Regulation Counsel in the area of attorney fees for court appointed counsel.

Since joining the firm in 2011, David has specialized in handling many of the firm’s business litigation matters including those dealing with complex contracts, non-competes, trade secrets, and construction defects. Additionally, with his strong appellate background, David has been the primary attorney on most of the firm’s appellate cases, including some of the largest non-compete cases in Colorado history. With an extremely thorough, analytical, and strategic approach and the determination to go the extra mile for each of his clients, David has established a reputation as skilled litigator and advocate. Originally from Michigan, David has been a lifelong fan and supporter of the University of Michigan. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 2005 and went on to study law at Michigan State University. While attending law school, David was selected to the nationally renowned Appellate Moot Court Program where he enjoyed great success. David and his teammates won the 2008 John Marshall International Moot Court Competition in Information Technology and Privacy Law and took second place in the 2008 New York Law School Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Competition. After graduating from law school, David moved to Colorado and began an internship clerking for the Honorable Gerald Rafferty and Honorable Valeria Spencer of the Arapahoe County District Court until he joined the firm. Outside of law, David is passionate about traveling around the world and particularly loves cruising with his wife and kids. He also loves being involved in all of his son’s and daughter’s activities including soccer, dance, baseball, scouting and camping.

Milo Schwab is a civil rights attorney who has spent his career advocating against government and corporate interests. Milo takes on the hard cases that others won’t take. Milo graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and has been practicing law for over 10 years. In 2020 Milo was the recipient of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Case of the Year Award in Abay v. City of Denver. Milo is licensed to practice in Colorado, New Jersey, New York and in the 7th and 10th Circuit respectively.

Eric Staton lived in Illinois until he was in the second grade, then in Spring, Texas, until his junior year in high school. His family moved to Littleton, Colorado in 1990, where he finished high school at Heritage High School. After high school, Eric studied English and Philosophy in Regis University, so the practice of Law appealed to him because he wanted a career that utilized his strengths in writing and analytical thinking. Eric studied Law at Rutgers School of Law. Eric was mentored in the area of workers’ compensation by one of the best lawyers who ever practiced in that area in Colorado, and he focuses his legal practice primarily on workers’ compensation claims, wrongful death claims, and injury claims of all types. Eric Staton has been a licensed Colorado lawyer for over twenty (20) years and has been with the Mintz Law Firm, LLC since March 2005 as a personal injury lawyer.

Eric Sims Jr. is the Founding Partner of Flatirons Legal Group, LLC. Tough, aggressive, skilled lawyer in trial, in hearings, and in negotiations best describes Eric. In his 19 year career, Mr. Sims has litigated seven first degree murder cases, represented many clients facing life in prison, went to trial on nearly one hundred felony cases, and tried countless misdemeanor cases. Mr. Sims has also defended juveniles and college aged clients in court and in school disciplinary hearings.

Eric developed his passion for law as an undergraduate in Austin, Texas. During law school at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, Eric focused his studies on business law and contracts because he knew that he wanted to assist small and medium sized business owners realize their entrepreneurial dreams. After law school, Eric completed his M.B.A. in Germany at the University of Stuttgart in 2008. As an attorney Eric has experience practicing in front of the Colorado Court of Appeals and in courts throughout the Denver metro area. Eric has also successfully navigated the bureaucratic morass of federal and Colorado state administrative law on behalf of his clients. He has also dedicated a portion of his time pro-bono legal work with Denver Metro Volunteer Lawyer’s Family Law Court Program, a program which assists and represents litigants in family proceedings who may otherwise be unable to afford representation. Eric understands the complexities of starting and maintaining a business and can guide a small business through the start up process, acquisition of capital, employer/employee relationships, changing business entity status, mergers, and handling international disputes. As a German speaker and a former resident of Germany, Eric also has an advanced understanding of German business practices and economics that he uses to assist clients as they develop their businesses in the German market.