October 2023 - Volume 11, Issue 46 |
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The events over the past week in Israel have shaken us to our core. We are devastated by the murder and human atrocities Hamas and its supporters have inflicted on innocent Israelis. We now brace ourselves for Israel’s defense of its citizens and sovereignty and the inevitable voices attacking our friend and ally Israel for defending its people and ensuring Hamas and its enablers are destroyed. At times like this, we know Jewish people around the world become targets for antisemitism from the political far left and extreme right. We here at Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher, LLP unequivocally give our full support to the people of Israel, the IDF, and Jewish communities in the United States and around the world. We will fight to protect our friends, family, and students on college campuses who receive disgusting and ignorant anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate. If you are interested in helping fund humanitarian efforts in Israel, we encourage you to donate at JewishColorado.org, where all money raised will be matched dollar for dollar, or one of the international organizations, AFMDA.org, FIDF.org, or JNF.org. 100% of the proceeds will go to helping those impacted by this devastating terrorism. FGMC will be donating to all of the organizations. We all pray for a fast and full resolution of this tragedy with as few innocent casualties as possible. |
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All too often the lawyers in our practice handle cases for good kids who have found themselves in trouble. Whether it be school discipline or contact with law enforcement, the best way to protect your children is to understand how the laws work in Colorado and create a dialogue about how to help your kids make good decisions. We invite you and your child (or grandchild) to attend this two-hour seminar to discuss the pitfalls teenagers face in Colorado. We hope our collective experience can help your children avoid mistakes that can have lifelong consequences.
- The temptation of drugs and alcohol and the consequences you could face.
- Sex, sexting, and the laws of consent.
- School disciplinary consequences and what to do if you are contacted by the police.
- Social media, cyber-bullying, and the use of electronic devices.
We will be doing two sessions. Please choose a date and click one of the following links to register:
Note:
The seminar is FREE to attend. All students must attend with at least one parent or legal guardian.
The topics to be discussed will contain explicit language and references.
We look forward to seeing you!
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Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP is pleased to announce that 14 FGMC partners have been included in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.
Please join us in congratulating the following attorneys:
- Lara Baker – Criminal Defense: General Practice
- Daniel Calisher – Litigation – Construction and Litigation – Real Estate
- John A. Chanin – Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: White-Collar, and Litigation – Banking and Finance
- Kristin A. Decker – Land Use and Zoning Law
- David WM. Foster – Land Use and Zoning Law
- Daniel S. Foster – Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
- Michael J. Gates – Commercial Litigation and Litigation – Construction
- Robert Graham – Corporate Law and Real Estate Law
- Mikhail L. Laskin – Criminal Defense: General Practice
- Gary Lozow – Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar
- Michael G. Milstein – Commercial Litigation
- Mallory A. Revel – Criminal Defense: General Practice
- Michael A. Rollin – Commercial Litigation
- Katherine A. Roush – Litigation – Labor and Employment
Congratulations!
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We are very pleased to announce that Erik N. Carlson has been selected to be recognized in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch®. This designation recognizes lawyers who are earlier in their careers for their outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the United States.
Mr. Carlson has been recognized for his work in the field of Land Use and Zoning Law. Erik’s extensive experience in land use, zoning and entitlement projects has put him on the fast track within FGMC’s Land Use and Real Estate legal team. Erik assists clients in successfully obtaining conditional use permits, variances, annexations, and rezoning approvals from town boards, city councils, boards of adjustment, and boards of county commissioners. Erik has experience working in cities and counties throughout Colorado. Erik rounds out his practice by facilitating complex real estate transactions for clients who are buying and selling property at various stages within the development process.
Please join us in congratulating Erik on this well-deserved honor. Erik’s detailed approach, his expertise and depth in land use issues, and his strong advocacy for his clients are key to his accomplishments. The firm is proud of Erik’s recognition, and we look forward to his continued success.
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We are very pleased to announce that Michael Rollin, Partner at Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, has been recognized by the 2024 edition of Benchmark Litigation. Benchmark Litigation prides itself as the guide to the world’s leading litigation law firms and lawyers. Benchmark Litigation is the only publication to focus exclusively on litigation in the US. They identify leading litigators and firms through an extensive interview process with litigators, dispute resolution specialists, and their clients.
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This summer I followed the stories about the New York lawyers who got sanctioned for submitting ChatGPT-generated briefs with cites to non-existent cases with a certain amount of schadenfreude. But I was also, secretly, curious – how does one generate an entire brief from ChatGPT and what would it look like? So, I did what any reasonable attorney would do – I tried to harness the new AI technology for myself. My results were not quite what I expected – I came nowhere close to getting any sort of legal analysis or even substantive case law out of ChatGPT (how did those New York attorneys even do it?), but I did use ChatGPT successfully to help me revise and improve my own, already-written work product.
First, I asked ChatGPT for caselaw on economic duress (having recently briefed an issue involving economic duress, I was familiar enough with the defense to be able to spot-check ChatGPT’s answers). ChatGPT apologized and explained that it doesn’t “have access to real-time legal databases or the ability to provide specific case law information beyond my last training data in September 2021.” I asked whether I could even use ChatGPT to find legal citations to cases, and ChatGPT assured me that I could. It recommended “requesting a list of relevant cases related to a certain area of law.”
Accordingly, I asked for “a list of relevant cases related to the economic duress doctrine.” But again, ChatGPT demurred, telling me that it doesn’t have “real time access to current legal databases of the ability to provide specific lists of cases.”
I changed tactics, and asked ChatGPT if it could help me generate a brief explaining why the economic duress doctrine is not available when the threat was filing a lawsuit. This time, ChatGPT gave me an outline of a legal brief to “get me started,” provided the caveat that it was a “general outline” only, and recommended I consult with an attorney. While the outline correctly stated the general law regarding economic duress, including why a lawsuit is not a sufficient threat to create duress, it was a far cry from a brief I could submit to court.
At this point, I abandoned my attempts to have ChatGPT write me a legal brief. I was both relieved that generating a legal brief with ChatGPT was not exactly easy (again, how did those New York attorneys manage it in the first place?) and also a little annoyed that I lacked the skill to convince ChatGPT to give me legal cites, imaginary or real (did I not ask politely enough?).
After I gave up trying to create substantive legal briefings with ChatGPT, I found significantly more success when I asked ChatGPT for help with smaller, more discrete tasks. ChatGPT was quite helpful when I requested aid with refining paragraphs and clunky sentences. For example, when I asked ChatGPT to help me concisely refine a paragraph I had previously written as a summary of the changes to Colorado’s new non-complete law, I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
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In today’s day and age, we often hear people throw around the phrase “my rights,” “freedom of speech,” and the “First Amendment” when making any type of statement, whether that be political propaganda with false information, aggressive Facebook statuses and social media posts, or offensive comments made by the various “Karens” of the world to those occupying supermarkets, stores, or simply the streets. With these types of speech seeming to become more and more prevalent in the past few years with the development of social media platforms, people have begun to wonder: Does the First Amendment really protect all of this? But as is true with any type of legal question: it depends.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states the following:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.[1]
This language would seem to suggest that an individual’s speech is fully protected by the First Amendment. However, there are various areas of speech that the First Amendment does not protect such as incitement and true threats.[2] True threats are statements where a “speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.”[3] The ban on true threats is meant to protect individuals from the fear of violence itself, the disruption fear generates, and from the potential that the threats of violence will actually take place.[4]
Just recently, in Counterman v. Colorado, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated and remanded a Colorado man’s conviction for stalking after Billy Counterman sent numerous threatening Facebook messages to a local musician and singer, Coles Whalen, wishing harm befall her despite being blocked numerous times on the social media platform.[5] Ms. Whalen became fearful for her life and reported Mr. Counterman to the local authorities. Mr. Counterman was eventually found guilty and convicted of stalking despite Mr. Counterman filing a motion to dismiss the charge on First Amendment grounds arguing that his messages to Ms. Whalen were not “true threats.” Mr. Counterman’s motion was denied, and Mr. Counterman’s conviction was affirmed by the Colorado Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court of Colorado denied review, but the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari.
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MEET FGMC'S NEWEST ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY |
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Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP is excited to announce that Amelia M. Stefan has joined our Land Use and Real Estate practice group.
Amelia's practice focuses on real estate and land use. Amelia is equipped with experience and knowledge of Colorado local governments. Amelia is a graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Amelia's passion for community development will add value to FGMC's Land Use and Real Estate practice group.
For more information about Amelia M. Stefan please follow the link.
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FGMC QUARTERLY SUCCESS STORIES |
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Conceptions Reproductive Associates of Colorado |
FGMC counseled Dr. Robert Greene and embryologist Glenn Proctor through the sale of the Conceptions fertility clinic, of which the two were part owners. The practice will now fall under the umbrella of IVI America. At the time of sale, the clinic was valued at over $60m. Dr. Greene and Mr. Proctor will continue providing their services under new corporate leadership. Evan Husney and Bryson Sebold assisted on the transaction. |
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National Renewable Solutions |
FGMC represents National Renewable Solutions (NRS), a U.S.-based renewable energy company with a headquarters in Minnesota. NRS acquires, develops, and operates renewable energy projects throughout the United States. NRS is developing a utility-scale wind energy project in northeast Colorado known as Overland East, which will be one of the largest wind farms in the state of Colorado. FGMC assisted NRS in obtaining the unanimous approval of a Special Use Permit application from the Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners. This approval will allow NRS to construct approximately 182 wind turbines, generating 750 MW of electricity across 70,000 acres. Kristin Decker and Kristin Sullivan represented NRS in the land use process. |
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FGMC represents Core Spaces, a residential development company with a focus on student housing and build-to-rent communities. On August 15th, FGMC successfully obtained rezoning and preliminary plat approval for a new residential community called Oxenfree at Welby. The community will have 285 residential units, including paired homes, townhomes and single-family homes. David Foster and Kristin Sullivan represented Core Spaces, and they obtained unanimous approval from the Adams County Board of County Commissioners.
See the illustrative plan for the project below.
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A Few Of Our Favorite Organizations |
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FGMC was honored to participate as a sponsor for the Birdies for Butterflies golf tournament that took place on September 11th. Proceeds from the event were used to support children suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa. The mission is to help improve quality of life and bring joy to those suffering. |
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Contact Us
360 S Garfield St Suite, Suite 600
Denver, CO 80209
Phone: (303) 333-9810 Fax: (303) 333-9786
FGMC are Colorado Lawyers serving most personal and business legal needs.
We offer clients the power of a large law firm with the personal service of a boutique law firm.
Practice areas include:
Auto Accident / Personal Injury Law, Appellate Practice, Business / Corporate / Finance / Mergers & Acquisitions,
Criminal Defense, Employment Law, Estate Planning / Tax Planning, Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense, Land Use And Real Estate, Law Enforcement Representation, Litigation
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