F. Stephen Collins is a shareholder and director in the Firm. Steve practices commercial litigation, with an emphasis on contractual/Uniform Commercial Code, intellectual property, employment/business relationships, real property and natural resources. His clients range from sole proprietors to multi-national corporations. In addition to acting as an advocate, Steve has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.
Steve represents clients on a full spectrum of contractual disputes, including complex Uniform Commercial Code disputes involving sales, secured transactions and commercial paper matters. His intellectual property litigation practice includes copyright, trademark and trade name, patent, and trade secret disputes. His employment/business relationships practice includes wrongful discharge, wage claim, covenant not to compete, duty of loyalty, and breach of contract cases, as well as the many issues necessarily associated with the dissolution of business groups. Steve's real estate and natural resource litigation focuses on oil and gas matters and also involves a variety of real estate issues.
Significant representative cases that Steve has handled include the successful prosecution through the Colorado Supreme Court of claims resulting from a wrongful attempt by Keystone Resorts to terminate the Peak 9 restaurant lease; and the successful defense against fraudulent conveyance claims arising out of Mickey Monus' sale of his interest in the Colorado Rockies.
Steve has been very active in teaching and other pro bono matters. Each year since 1992, Steve has served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Regional Program of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Steve also served on the faculty of the Business Litigation Institute at Hastings College of the Law from 1996-2000 and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law teaching a variety of Uniform Commercial Code courses from 2000-2007. Steve presently is on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Colorado Lawyers Committee and until recently served as a co-chair of the Hate Violence Task Force. Steve also works with the US Department of Justice’s Hate Crimes Task Force. Steve has been honored as the Attorney of the Year by the Colorado Lawyers Committee for 1996; as the Volunteer Attorney of the Year by the Denver Bar Association for 1999; and was the recipient of the Colorado Lawyers Committee’s 2001 Outstanding Sustained Contribution Award. Steve has been listed in The Denver Business Journal’s annual listing of Who’s Who in Professional Services in Denver each year since 1998, and was listed the The Best Lawyers in America and in Colorado SuperLawyers each year since 2005.
Practice Areas
Energy & Natural Resources, Litigation, Business Restructuring & Reorganization
Education
1979, J.D., Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, California
Associate Editor, Hastings Law Journal
Thurston Honor Society
Order of the Coif
Recipient, Milton D. Green Top 10 Students Award
1976, B.S., Marketing, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Bar and Court Admissions
Denver; Arapahoe County; and Douglas/Elbert County Bar Associations
Colorado Bar Association
American Bar Association
Colorado Trial Lawyers Association
Commercial Arbitration Panel of the American Arbitration Association
Community Involvement
Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, 50 for Colorado, Class of 1997
Colorado Lawyers Committee, Hate Violence Task Force, co-chair 1995-2001
Member, Department of Justice, Hate Crimes Working Group since 1999
Honors and Distinctions
Law clerk to Justice Edmund W. Burke of the Supreme Court of Alaska, 1979-80
Honored as the Colorado Lawyers Committee Attorney of the Year for work as co-chair of the Committee's Hate/Violence Task Force, 1996
50 for Colorado, Class of 1997, Above and Beyond Award
Denver Bar Association, 1999 Volunteer Attorney of the Year
Colorado Lawyers Committee, 2001 Outstanding Sustained Contribution Award
The Denver Business Journal, Who's Who in Professional Services, 1998- 2005
Best Lawyers in America, 2005-present
Colorado SuperLawyers, 2005-present