Holland & Hart is proud to announce that Partner Maureen Witt was inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (IATL) at the organization’s mid-year meeting held July 24-28. IATL is an international legal association recognized as the most prestigious organization of trial lawyers in the world.
IATL’s Fellowship is by invitation only, which includes a rigorous vetting process by both peer and judicial review. Membership is limited to 500 active trial lawyers from the United States and includes over 150 Fellows from nearly 40 countries across the globe. Fellows are selected for achieving a career of excellence as shown by their skills in trial, and as demonstrated by their integrity and professionalism. Members are often heavily involved in pro bono efforts and contribute generously of their time and resources to their local communities.
With almost 40 years of experience in cutting-edge, high-stakes, complex litigation locally and nationally, Witt has first-chaired significant cases of first impression and precedent-setting trials and appeals. Her experience includes jury trials, bench trials, appeals, and alternative dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration. She has tried cases in numerous jurisdictions across the country and has handled appeals in the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. Witt currently leads Holland & Hart’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group and Products Liability Group, co-chair of the firm’s International Arbitration practice group, and handles ICSID, ICC, ad hoc and other arbitrations throughout the world.
Throughout her career, Witt has been invested in giving back to the community actively seeks out opportunities to give her skills, time, and talents to pro bono and public service activities. She has served in leadership and board roles in many legal and other charitable organizations, including Colorado Lawyers Committee, Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation, and Notre Dame Law Association, to name a few. She also teaches annually at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and lectures frequently on trial advocacy. In a rewarding conclusion to a five-year long pro bono case that involved an interlocutory appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and an application for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, Witt, with a team of Colorado litigators, secured a substantial monetary award in a disability discrimination case on behalf of a young girl with Down Syndrome and other physical and intellectual disabilities. The lawsuit against Pueblo School District No. 60 sought to prevent the District from using a “restraining desk” with a wooden bar that locked behind the chair. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned an award of $2.2 million in favor of the young girl and her family to compensate for the trauma she endured from the mechanical restraint and for ongoing psychological counseling.