FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Jackie Sarlo (303) 866-0689
December 8, 2006
HOLME ROBERTS & OWEN ATTORNEY
OUTSTANDING YOUNG LAWYER OF THE YEAR
Denver, CO – Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO) is pleased to announce that David Ball
received the Colorado Bar Association's 2006 Gary McPherson Award as Outstanding Young
Lawyer of the Year. To be eligible, lawyers must be members in good standing of the Colorado
Bar Association who are 37 years or younger or who have been practicing law less than three
years. Nominees were required to have an outstanding record of professional success,
community service achievements, and a strong commitment to civic participation and inspiring
others, whether within the legal profession or elsewhere, to do the same.
Mr. Ball is a Senior Associate in the firm’s Denver office. He earned his Juris Doctor from the
University of Virginia School of Law and joined the firm in 2002 after serving as a law clerk for
the Honorable Karl S. Forester, then Chief Judge of United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Kentucky. He is a member of the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation, Securities
Litigation and Employment and Labor practice groups.
Over the past two years, Mr. Ball has engaged in extensive pro bono legal service. By way of
example, Mr. Ball recently first-chaired a five-day bench trial, in which he asked the court to
balance the First Amendment rights of free exercise with the rights of free speech. In a case of
first impression in the state of Colorado, Mr. Ball and his trial team secured a permanent
injunction against protesters who disrupted his client’s religious services and targeted children
with graphic images. The case is of particular national significance in light of recent legislation,
passed in nearly half of the states in this country, limiting similar protest activity during funerals.
Mr. Ball serves as Secretary for the Denver Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division
Executive Council and in that capacity chairs Attorney’s Night Out (a fundraising event for the
Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People), co-chairs the Law Week Committee
(responsible for planning the Denver Bar Association’s activities for Law Week), is active in
Winter Festival (a program that provides toys and other gifts to Denver area foster children), and
serves as a liaison between the DBA/YLD and Denver CASA. Mr. Ball is also a member of the
Judge William E. Doyle American Inn of Court and regularly participates in its monthly
activities and events. At HRO, he is engaged in the summer associate program and the mentor
program. Mr. Ball is also an active member of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. He and his
family are heavily involved in the Mile High Down Syndrome Association.
Rich Gabriel, a partner at HRO and the individual responsible for Mr. Ball’s nomination, relays,
“Over the years, I have watched Mr. Ball blossom into the successful attorney we all knew he
would be. He is an extraordinarily talented, intelligent person, whose work ethic and
congeniality make him an exceptional asset to the firm. . . . Mr. Ball’s dedication to pro bono
legal service clearly demonstrates his . . . understanding of the broader obligations that we, as
attorneys, undertake when we join the profession. I am delighted that he received this year’s
McPherson Award.”
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, is a Denver-based law firm that was established in 1898. The firm
has approximately 250 lawyers practicing in eight strategically positioned and fully integrated
offices throughout the world in Salt Lake City, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boulder,
Colorado Springs, London and Munich. The firm's lawyers provide a broad spectrum of legal
services in virtually every area of the law, including corporate, securities, mergers and
acquisitions, corporate finance, commercial litigation, health, employment, tax, environmental
and intellectual property.
###