The ADL Mountain States Region will honor civil rights champions Hans Meyer (immigration attorney and founder of The Meyer Law Office), Qusair Mohamedbhai (civil rights attorney and a partner at Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC) and Judy and Dennis Shepard (founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation) at its 2019 Civil Rights Awards Reception on Wednesday, February 20, from 5:30-7:00 pm at the Chambers Grant Salon in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Tickets are available at www.adl.org/civilrights2019.

In addition, ADL will recognize the outstanding work of participants in its 2018 Summer Associate Research Program (SARP). Participants are law students who, in their role as summer associates with local law firms, provide critical research on civil rights issues. Twenty-seven summer associates from nine prominent law firms in Denver participated in this year’s program.  Under the direction of a supervising attorney and working individually, in pairs or in groups, each summer associate researched an assigned topic and provided a memorandum to ADL.  All of the issues researched are of utmost importance to ADL as the League encounters them in its daily work of serving the community. The two winning memos were deemed especially superior by a team of judges that, using a detailed rubric, judged eighteen memos in two rounds of competition over the course of four weeks.

We are pleased to announce that the winners of this year’s ADL Summer Associate Research Program Memo Competition are Rachael Collins, David Fox, Francis Mascarenhas and Matthew McKissick.

Ms. Collins and Mr. Mascarenhas were summer associates at Hogan Lovells LLP. Ms. Collins attends the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle and Mr. Mascarenhas attends UCLA School of Law. Their winning memo explored a question regarding public accommodations.  The memo analyzed whether a bed & breakfast would be in violation of the state’s public accommodation law when the B&B owner refused, on religious grounds, to accept a room reservation for a lesbian couple.

Mr. Fox and Mr. McKissick were summer associates at Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck LLP. Mr. Fox attends the UC Davis School of Law and Mr. McKissick attends the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The Brownstein team researched and wrote their winning memo about a question regarding hate speech on social media.  The memo analyzed whether a social media site that removes anti-Semitic posts and bans the poster from the site is violating his free speech rights and whether social media acts as the equivalent of a public space.

We offer our sincerest congratulations to this year’s winners and their firms.

For information and to obtain tickets for the 2019 Civil Rights Awards, please visit www.adl.org/civilrights2019.  To learn more about sponsorship and tribute opportunities, please call 720-799-9678.