Since 1982, ADL’s Mountain States Office has recognized 64 Colorado leaders for their work to improve civil rights and equal opportunity for all residents of our state. This year, we are proud to add Hans Meyer, Qusair Mohamedbhai and Judy and Dennis Shepard to that impressive list as we present them with ADL’s Civil Rights Award. The 2019 Civil Rights Awards Reception will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at the Chambers Grant Salon at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. The winners of ADL’s Summer Associate Research Program – David Fox and Matt McKissick from Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber & Schreck and Rachael Collins and Francis Mascarenhas from Hogan Lovells – will also be recognized.
Hans Meyer is the founder of the Meyer Law Office, P.C. in Denver, specializing in immigration law. Hans advocates for the statutory and constitutional rights of immigrants before various immigration agencies and state and federal courts, often against governmental and institutional abuses of power. He is a former trial attorney with the Colorado State Public Defender, where he became an expert in immigration law and developed a statewide immigration advisement system for indigent noncitizen defendants. Hans frequently lectures, publishes and appears in the press on issues related to immigration law and the criminal justice system. He also served as the former Director of Public Policy for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, where he focused on local, state and national immigration policy. Prior to his career as an attorney, he was a forest firefighter, construction worker and Outward Bound instructor.
Qusair Mohamedbhai is a partner at Rathod | Mohamedbhai LLC in Denver. He practices exclusively in the areas of plaintiff’s employment discrimination and constitutional civil rights litigation. He advocates for the rights of employees in the workplace and for the civil rights of all individuals against governmental and institutional abuses of power. He represented two dozen Muslim workers at the Cargill meatpacking plant in Fort Morgan who received a settlement in 2018 after arguing that their civil rights were violated when they were denied prayer breaks, and then were fired after they complained. Qusair is an adjunct faculty member teaching constitutional litigation at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and employment law at Metropolitan State University. He is the legal adviser to the Mexican government on issues of civil rights and employment discrimination affecting Mexican nationals living in Colorado and Wyoming.
Judy and Dennis Shepard lost their 21-year-old son, Matthew, to a murder motivated by anti-gay hate in October of 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming. Determined to prevent others from suffering their son’s fate, Judy and Dennis decided to turn their grief into action and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation to carry on Matthew’s legacy. The Foundation is dedicated to working toward the causes championed by Matthew during his life: social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The Shepards played a critical role in the passage of the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. Judy and Dennis continue to make their home in Casper, Wyoming. The Foundation is a key partner of ADL’s Mountain States Region in countering bias and hate in all of its forms.
The Civil Rights Awards Reception supports the critical work we do every day to fight bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism, and to advocate for civil rights. We hope you’ll join us. For more information, including sponsorship opportunities, please visit our website: www.adl.org/civilrights2019