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Get to Know the 2023 Raising the Bar Honorees, Part 2

Writer's picture: Julia Kneeland LazureJulia Kneeland Lazure

The Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation 17th Annual Raising the Bar Celebration is taking place on September 7, 2023 from 5:30pm to 8pm. This year, six amazing women are being honored. There is still time to register to attend the event today, but you need to hurry and register by today, September 1, 2023: Colorado Women's Bar Association Foundation (CWBAF) - 17th Annual Raising the Bar Celebration (cwbafoundation.org)


We feature three of the honorees in this blog post: Lisa Hogan, Alexi Freeman, and Kiki Council. Please enjoy learning more about each honoree from the people who nominated them.


Lisa Hogan

Shareholder, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP



Lisa Hogan contributes to lawyers' well-being by generously sharing her creativity and humor and demonstrating how these can be exercised every day while practicing law at the highest level. She’s a practitioner of “laughter is the best medicine” and how it can effectively disarm opponents. Lisa is a "strategic employment litigator with a history of creative legal solutions, whether through advocacy in trial or appellate courts or strategic problem solving with her clients. Having her among the honorees will add lots of laughter to the evening." One year at the CWBA’s annual convention she gave her presentation on work/life balance while literally juggling and performing on aerial silks. She once did a CWBA lunch program about the emotional daily ups and downs of preparing to argue before the US Supreme Court. Lisa has been active in the community, having served on many boards, including Bold Leaders/Critical Mass Leadership Education, Smart Energy Living Alliance, Colorado Shakespeare Festival Advisory Board, CO-LABS, Denver Safehouse Board, Rape Assistance and Awareness Program Board, Denver Children's Advocacy Center Board, Boulder YWCA Board, Downtown Denver Civic Ventures Board, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance.


Alexi Freeman

Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Director of Externships and Social Justice Initiatives, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law

Dean Freeman leads DU Law's work on DEI, externships, and social justice. Her nominator came to know her through her internship work. In CLEs and webinars, and in one-on-one conversations, Dean Freeman is remarkably attentive to others' wellness. Sometimes this has taken a DEI lens. For example, she runs a series of CLEs on DEI topics and speaks frequently in them about how DEI is essential to wellbeing. Other times, in the externship context, her nominator has seen her advocate for individual students' wellness needs and encourage employers to set boundaries and encourage wellness practices. Her students have a powerful example in her. Over their seven years working together, the nominator has been consistently impressed with Dean Freeman’s commitment to DEI, as well as her broader commitment to the whole student – really a focus on the Inclusion part of DEI and on helping students and young lawyers take care of themselves as they find their place in the legal community. Students constantly report to other faculty members about the ways in which she has helped them to maintain sanity during law school. She is a very deserving of this award.


Kiki Council

Legal Counsel for Pro Bono Initiatives, The Lawyering Project



Kiki has been an incredible advocate for women in the reproductive justice space, and offered her unwavering voice of reason and hope. Kiki is an active member of the Colorado legal community—including the Colorado Women’s Bar Association, the Sam Cary Bar Association (Colorado’s Black and African American bar association), the Colorado LGBT Bar Association, and Colorado Attorneys Against Police Violence—and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Cobalt, a Colorado nonprofit dedicated to furthering reproductive rights and abortion access for all. Before joining The Forefront Project, Kiki practiced labor and employment litigation at Campbell Litigation, P.C. in Denver. Prior to that, she obtained a JD from the University of Colorado Law School, clerked for Judge Allison Eid on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, and practiced commercial litigation at Holland & Hart LLP in Denver. Kiki has also honed a pro bono practice focused on immigrant rights and judicial bypass hearings for minors. In 2020, Kiki was honored to receive the Attorney of the Year award from the Colorado LGBT Bar Association for her efforts in the racial justice movement.

As a mixed Black, bisexual woman, Kiki is passionate about social justice, particularly reproductive rights, health, and justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice. In her work, she strives to secure every human’s legal and social rights to autonomy over their choices for their bodies.


We are very excited to celebrate all of the honorees at this year’s event. We hope you can join us!


 

Julia Kneeland Lazure is a partner at Kneeland & Lazure Law, LLC, where she works with individuals and families to navigate major changes in their lives, so they can have peace of mind and plan for their futures in the areas of estate planning, business law, and family law. She graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law, and prior to joining Kneeland & Lazure Law, LLC, Julia worked at Denver District Court as the Family Court Facilitator and served as a judicial law clerk. In addition to volunteering with the Colorado Women’s Bar Association, Julia serves on the planning committee for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Annual Continuing Legal Education Conference; volunteer guest lectures and provides trainings at Denver District Court; and is the Immediate Past President of the Junior League of Denver, a women’s training and civic leadership organization.


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