Our Difference

With the largest family law practice at a full-service law firm in Colorado, Sherman & Howard provides the laser-sharp focus of a boutique family law firm and the deep cross-disciplinary experience needed to handle our clients’ many needs, including the related corporate, tax, and estate planning issues that arise in complex divorces.

We represent a diverse clientele that includes business owners, corporate executives, philanthropists, celebrities, professional athletes, artists, art collectors, attorneys, physicians, hedge fund managers, and other prominent individuals. Through decades of representing such clients, we have developed extensive experience in the use of creative tools and strategies to favorably resolve particularly challenging family law matters.

Our Approach

Clients rely on us for comprehensive service to meet all of their legal needs, business-related issues to real estate and from trusts and estates to litigation and tax matters. Further, we are sensitive to the emotional motivations that often come into play in a divorce. We pride ourselves on our diplomacy and discretion as we strive to preserve our clients’ privacy, best protect their interests, and preserve their financial stability.

Services

From amicable settlements to highly complex litigation, Sherman & Howard’s experienced negotiators and skilled trial lawyers represent high net worth individuals and high-profile clients regarding:

  • Asset valuation and protection
  • Divorce and legal separation
  • Complex financial negotiations and settlements
  • Prenuptial, postnuptial, and cohabitation agreements
  • Child support and parental responsibilities
  • Adoption
  • Stock options, deferred compensation, and other executive compensation benefits
  • Same-sex marriage and nontraditional family relationships
  • Multistate and international property disputes
  • Mediation

Experience

  • Represented a $350 million estate that included multigenerational family trusts and ownership of a large mutual fund in litigation focused on the enforceability of a 20-year-old marital agreement, the creation of an intentionally defective irrevocable trust, and conflict of laws from four different jurisdictions.
  • Handled family litigation involving an international oil and gas company valued between $500,000 – $1 billion. This case involved matters in multiple courts and cases between the spouses and extended family as all sought control over the family companies in the divorce action.
  • Represented world-renowned medical specialists in litigation over a one-of-a-kind medical practice as well as an art collection valued in excess of $100 million.
  • Created trusts for the benefit of a less-propertied spouse as a way to meet that spouse’s monetary needs during a divorce from a professional athlete spouse while preserving family wealth for the benefit of future generations.
  • Used irrevocable life insurance trusts as a means of guaranteeing a client’s obligations under a divorce decree.
  • Defended a claim that a trust beneficiary’s failure to exercise a power of withdrawal from the trust gave rise to marital property.
  • Assisted a client in avoiding potential civil and criminal tax liability discovered during divorce proceedings through the use of the IRS’ voluntary disclosure program.
  • Orchestrated the unwinding of a complicated and ill-conceived closely held family investment entity that held virtually an entire multimillion-dollar marital estate and gave rise to significant tax liability exposure.
  • Prevailed at trial and on appeal in a hotly contested $42 million business valuation dispute involving a company in the volatile oil and gas industry.
  • Assisted a family in avoiding $22 million in tax liability that was potentially triggered by the restructuring of multiple multigenerational family business entities created to hold hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth created during a marriage.

Highlights

Regarded as leaders in the field, our family law attorneys are consistently recognized by Best Lawyers of America, Super Lawyers, and 5280 Magazine. Team members are often called on to serve as expert witnesses in complicated family law cases, to provide training to judicial officers and other attorneys on complex legal and financial aspects of family law, and to draft amicus briefs to assist courts in gaining a clearer understanding of issues. Our lawyers have served on Colorado’s legislative committees, influenced and drafted family law legislation, and frequently write about and present on legal developments and trends in family law.

Respected by both the bench and the bar, our lawyers include Fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and one of the former presidents of the Colorado chapter.

Meet the team

Richard F. Bednarski

Member

Terrance Carroll

Counsel Member

Blair Carral Carter

Associate

Kathryn DeVries

Member

James Eklund

Member

Jordan M. Fox

Member

Garth B. Jensen

Member

Taylor John

Associate

Isaac Lodico

Counsel Member

Hannah Mink

Associate

Craig A. Morgan

Member

Jake Tyler Rapp

Associate

Madeleine Sheahan Rosengrants

Associate

Shayna Stuart

Associate

Hannah Taylor

Associate

Marte B. Timmers

Member

Natalie Whitacre

Associate

Mark W. Williams

Member

Diane E. Wozniak

Member
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