Education

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, 1977

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY B.S., Psychology, 1972

Bar Admissions

• Colorado

Partner

Jim Martell

I have deep roots in Fort Collins.  I am a third generation native Coloradoan.  My grandfather, Ace Gillett, was born in Sterling, Colorado.  My mother was born in Fort Morgan, Colorado and moved with her parents to Fort Collins in 1940.  Ace Gillett owned the hotel and restaurant business known as the Northern Hotel and Ace Gillett’s Coffee Shop.  He subsequently acquired the Armstrong Hotel.  My father came to Fort Collins with the Grafe-Callahan Construction Company to build the dams that created Horsetooth Reservoir, the northerly most reservoir of the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project.  He stayed at the Northern Hotel where he met my Mother.  My parents moved to Kremmling, Colorado with the Construction Company to construct the dams that created the reservoirs forming the western slope water collection portion of the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project.  I was born in Kremmling, delivered by Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the small town country doctor form the Rocky Mountains who’s picture appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in 1948.  We moved back to Fort Collins in 1953.  I have two sisters who also live in Fort Collins.  

My spouse, Christy, and her family moved from Nederland, Colorado to Fort Collins in 1949.  They started Sterling Sand and Gravel Company and Sterling Paving Company.  Christy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1971 and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1988, both from Colorado State University.  She is emerita faculty from Colorado State University having taught in the Art Department for more than 20 years.  Christy and I met in high school.  We have now been married for more than 54 years.  We have no children, but have a number of wonderful nieces and nephews.

I graduated from Colorado State University with High Distinction in 1972, and receive a law degree from Washington University in Saint Louis in 1977, graduating in the top 15% of my graduating class. I was Editor in Chief of the Urban Law Annual during my third year.

I lettered in golf at Poudre High School and Occidental College, ran 5 marathons during the late 1980s including the Boston Marathon, and participated in the Age-Group World Duathlon (run-bike-run) Champions in 1995 (Cancun, Mexico) and 1996 (Ferrara, Italy).  Now I do yoga.

Community Involvement

• Board of Directors of the Colorado State University Foundation 1986 to 2024. Board Chair from 1991 to 2021
• Advisory Board of Colorado State University Art Museum, 2011-2014 (President of the Advisory Board 2013-2014)
•The Family Center/La Familia 2006-2012 and 2018-2021(President 2012-2013). •Open Stage Theater Board 2007-2012 •One West Art Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, February 1993-1995 (Chairman 1994-1995) •The Affordable Housing Consortium 1993-1995 •Museum of Contemporary Art 2006-2007 •The Downtown Development Authority of Fort Collins, 1988-1994 (Chairman 1991-1993)

Partner

Kate Belford

I am a civil attorney specializing in real estate and property litigation.  I grew up in Fort Collins and graduated summa cum laude from Colorado State University.  While at CSU, I found a passion in politics and the process of conflict resolution. I spent much of my time at CSU as a member of the student Senate and a trained public facilitator with the CSU Center for Public Deliberation. 

In 2009, I had the incredible honor of being a White House Intern under President Obama in the first class of interns during his tenure. I went on to law school, during which I interned with the Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center and worked as a research fellow for The Nature Conservancy in Bogotá, Colombia.

After receiving my law degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2013, I did what anyone would do and moved to Hawaii to learn how to surf and perhaps become a lawyer there.  While I discovered I am not a world-class surfer, I did have great success as an attorney. In my first four years of practice, I settled multiple complex cases and won four appeals in the Intermediate Court of Appeals of the State of Hawaii. 

After the birth of our first child, my spouse and I relocated back to Colorado to be closer to family and the mountains.  I have been practicing with Jim ever since. I love rock climbing and running, and have completed four marathons.

Community Involvement

• Board of Directors of the NoCo Humane Society