Ron and Andy both arrived in Aspen in the early 1970s. Andy first worked for attorney Dwight Shellman, who was later elected a County Commissioner, whose office was then located on the second floor of the Wheeler Opera House. Ron first worked for J.E. DeVilbiss in his Carbondale office before J.E. became a District Court Judge. The Aspen of the 1970s was quite different from the Aspen of today or even the Aspen of 25 years ago. Ron and Andy, on a handshake, opened their law office in October 1975 in the building that is now the Alpine Bank building. Later, they moved to the building at 600 East Hyman that was known as Victorian Square. That building was eventually demolished, and in 2016 the firm moved to its current Aspen office, which is the second floor of 625 East Hyman Ave. in the Muse Building.
Over the past 50 years, lawyers and law firms have come and gone. Large Denver firms and even national and international firms have opened in aspen only to later close. Some of those firms have been gobbled up by an even larger firms. We are a homegrown firm that started in Aspen 50 years ago. Our mothership remains Aspen, but our great success has propelled us outward into Colorado. Today, we are 30-plus attorneys with six offices: Aspen, which also serves Snowmass and the greater Pitkin County; Carbondale, which serves the mid-valley and greater Eagle County; and Glenwood Springs, which serves the down-valley and greater Garfield County. We also have an office in Avon that serves the Vail Valley and in Denver at the Denver Tech Center. Recently, we opened a telluride office to serve another great Colorado resort town and greater San Miguel county.
For years, our motto was “Big City Legal Services, Small Town Law Practice.” This motto was to signify that in a small town we could very well serve clients who were used to sophisticated big-city law firms. We successfully take on cases where we
are up against big-city lawyers and all their resources. Our lawyers work around the state. From basically a real estate practice in the 1970s, we have developed strong practice areas in commercial litigation, land use, banking, family law, water law,
estate planning, representing small and large businesses, advocating for individual rights, municipal and special district law, homeowners association law, representing developers (large and small), and considerable pro bono successes. We are proud of our financial support of many local and national charities and non-profits. Giving back to the local communities that have given us so much is a must. Our roots and where we all live are in our local communities, not downtown Denver or electronic versions of more remote national or global firms.
Our litigation group has great success in the trial and appellate courts of Colorado and at the federal level. This success includes both defending and bringing litigation against local governments. While we generally favor growth controls, protecting the environment, and energy-saving measures, we do not hesitate to champion the rights of individuals against governments that overstep their limits of authority or act in an arbitrary manner. We are, without a doubt, the biggest and best homegrown law firm to come out of the Western Slope of Colorado. To all our shareholders, attorneys, staff, clients, friends of the firm, and all the members of the communities we serve that have supported us over the years, Andy and I offer our sincere thanks and promise more.
www.garfieldhecht.com | atty@garfieldhecht.com | 970.925.1936
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