One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them One ring to bring them all and in the daRkness bind them
Norm Brownstein
David Sirota, senior editor for the International Business Times, called the Denver based law and lobbying firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, LLC (the “Brownstein Law Firm”) the Octopus as its corrupting tentacles stretch to every important institution in Colorado and even Washington, D.C.
Norm Brownstein, Jack Hyatt and Steve Farber formed the firm 50 years ago just out of University of Colorado Law School. Today the law firm law has over 500 attorneys in 11 offices across the country. From the start Brownstein and his fellow attorneys were never the most talented or brightest lawyers, but operated on the maxim — “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”
The firm has and does pour enormous sums of money to politicians and other movers and shakers in Colorado and Washington, D.C. In turn the Brownstein Law Firm expects, or more correctly demands, favors in return. One can go nowhere in Colorado in any hallway of power and not run into a present or former Brownstein attorney. Brownstein attorneys have been the City Attorney for Mayor Michael Hancock, the Chief of Staff for Governor John Hickenlooper etc. etc. It is not simply state and local offices as the United States Attorney for Colorado, Robert Troyer, is a former Brownstein partner who will undoubtedly return to Mordor once his term serving Donald Trump is over.
The Brownstein Law Firm is only interested in power and thus it makes no distinction between Republicans or Democrats. Troyer himself was appointed to the United States Attorney’s Office by President Obama, but the Brownstein Law Firm had enough pull in Republican circles to get Troyer appointed to a permanent U.S. Attorney for Colorado position.
If you have been wronged by the Brownstein Law Firm do not think you can successfully seek justice in state or federal court in Colorado, as many, if not most, of the judges have been appointed to their positions due to the influence of the Brownstein Law Firm.
The most recent scandals involving Denver Mayor Michael Hancock show just how far the malodorous influence of the firm extends. Back in 2011 The Denver Post and Channel 9 News discovered that Hancock had been a client of the Denver Players/Sugar brothel. Bruce James, the managing partner of the Brownstein Law Firm, who was the co-campaign manager of the Hancock for Mayor effort, convinc
Doug Friednash
ed those two news organizations not to publish anything concerning the Hancock scandal until after the election promising to provide proof that Hancock was innocent.
After Hancock won James reneged on his word. It was believed that Hancock had been filmed going into the brothel by the Denver Police. When the Post and Channel 9 News submitted a joint open records request for the video, James volunteered to sign on to show Hancock was “open and transparent,” but, in fact, he surreptitiously and separately sent a second secret letter to Police Chief Gerry Whitman on behalf of the mayor-elect. The police chief, of course, knew that in a matter of weeks Hancock would have the power to fire him without a moment’s notice. In the secret letter James instructed the police chief to send him all the evidence and then not tell the public what had been done. Unfortunately for James the second letter was discovered by Channel 7 News. Allegedly the members of the Brownstein Law Firm were unfazed at the bad publicity, allegedly laughing about how clever and utterly unscrupulous the firm’s attorneys were.
Bob Troyer
The scandal went away when The Denver Post simply declared that there was all of a sudden no proof tying Hancock to Denver Players/Sugar. Since that time The Denver Post has acted as little more than a cheerleader for Hancock.
Now when the Post identifies Norm Brownstein it often no longer calls him a lawyer or a lobbyist but rather a “philanthropist.” Cynics note that even Al Capone gave back a little bit of his ill-gotten gains to soup kitchens in Chicago, but the Chicago papers were never so debauched as to call him a “philanthropist.”
Don’t want the Winter Olympics in Colorado in 2026? Not to worry; the Brownstein Law Firm doesn’t care what you think or want and they have a partner on the Denver Olympic Exploratory Committee to help with the legal work to bring that financial and logistical nightmare here. Don’t want the massive taxpayer giveaways to b
Bruce James
ring Amazon’s second headquarters to Denver? Once again don’t worry, the Brownstein lobbying arm has a lucrative contract to try to make it happen, citizens be damned.
There is virtually nothing in Denver which citizens hate that the Brownstein Law Firm hasn’t had a hand in and made a profit from. It has gotten so bad when a member of the Denver illuminati sees horrendous traffic jams or when parks and open space are destroyed or when neighborhoods are ruined by high density apartment houses he or she simply shrugs and notes: “Well I guess we have just gotten Brownsteined again.”
Over the last 50 years since the founding of the Brownstein Law Firm, Norm Brownstein and his partners have gotten incredibly rich, but they have done so on the backs of every man, woman and child in the City and County of Denver. Happy 50th Lord of the Rings. May justice someday come to your doorstep.