The ADL Mountain States Region will honor the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) and Emma Shinn, Esq., Co-Founder and Past Executive Director of the Colorado Name Change Project at its 2020 Civil Rights Awards Reception.  ADL will also recognize the winners of the Summer Associate Research Program Memo Competition: Jordan Cohen and David Willner (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck) and Alexandra Haggarty (Otten Johnson Robinson Neff + Ragonetti PC). The Civil Rights Awards Reception will be held on Wednesday, February 12, from 5:30-7:00 pm at the Chambers Grant Salon in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Tickets are available at www.adl.org/civilrights2020.

In addition, ADL will recognize the outstanding work of participants in its 2019 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-eight 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 seventeen 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 Jordan Cohen, Alexandra Haggarty and David Willner.

Ms. Haggarty was a summer associate at Otten Johnson Robinson Neff + Ragonetti and is excited to join the firm in September 2020. Ms. Haggarty, a third-year student at the University of Colorado School of Law, is the current Outreach Editor of the Colorado Law Review, has interned at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, and has worked at the Boulder County Attorney’s Office. Ms. Haggarty wrote her winning memo on banning hate speakers on social media sites. Her memo found that because online platforms are private entities, they may ban users that violate its standards of speech from the site and that contributors who are banned are likely not protected by the Constitution.

Mr. Cohen and Mr. Willner were summer associates at Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck LLP.  Mr. Cohen is a third-year student at Georgetown Law and Mr. Willner is a second-year student at the University of Colorado Law School. Mr. Cohen is originally from Louisville, CO and worked last semester at the Rising for Justice Housing Advocacy and Litigation Clinic representing low income tenants facing eviction. He is excited to join Brownstein Hyatt as an associate following graduation. Mr. Willner is a member of the University of Colorado Law Review, Korey Wise Innocence Project, and Military Law Society. Prior to law school, he was a Captain in the U.S. Army.

The Brownstein team wrote their memo on anti-boycott laws, specifically those that target the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement urging a boycott of Israeli products. Their memo found that, although 27 states including Colorado have adopted anti-BDS legislation, such measures could likely be challenged on First Amendment grounds as a barrier to expression of free speech.

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

For information about the 2020 Civil Rights Awards, to obtain tickets or to learn about sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.adl.org/civilrights2020.