David Thrower Appointed as Municipal Court Judge for the Town of Superior

Dietze and Davis, P.C. would like to congratulate David Thrower on his appointment as Municipal Court Judge for the Town of Superior.  David’s appointment follows 13 years of service as Superior’s Prosecuting Attorney.  In addition to serving as a municipal judge, David will continue his practice at Dietze and Davis, P.C. in the areas of transactions, business, estate planning, real estate, and landlord tenant matters.  

Star Waring Becomes the Boulder County Bar Association President

At the annual meeting BCBA on May 29, 2014, Star Waring was handed the gavel to become Boulder County Bar Association President.  In this position Star will coordinate all events and initiatives of the BCBA and be a liaison between the local bar and the broader Boulder community.  Star succeeds former BCBA Presidents from Dietze and Davis, including Karl Kumli and Steve Closky.   Congratulations Star!

Karl Kumli Elected as the New Secretary of the Natural Resource and Energy Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association

Karl was elected as secretary of the Natural Resources and Energy Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association at a meeting held May 15 at the University Club in Denver.  The NREL Section, as the name suggests, covers a wide variety of issues, including energy, oil, gas, mining and public land law.  Karl will serve on the Executive Council for the section, which produces continuing legal education programs, networking opportunities and assistance to section members.  “I look forward to an opportunity to help ‘energize’ the section,” Karl said, following the meeting.  “I also look forward to working cooperatively with other sections such as the water law section, real estate section and agricultural law section in an effort to provide comprehensive access to information to our members.  I also look forward to adding a small bit of a ‘Boulder-awareness’ to the section as well.”

Karl’s one-year term will end in May of 2015. 

Waring and Kumli to Present Nationally Broadcast Webinar

Karl Kumli and Star Waring have been asked by the National Business Institute (NBI), to “star” in a six hour continuing legal education program on Water Law.  The program will be “taped” in Wisconsin in February of 2014 (brrrrr) and will be broadcast nationwide in early March.  Waring and Kumli will be the only faculty for the entire program which will cover a wide array of water topics in a comprehensive fashion.  Karl and Star were among a host of presenters at another NBI water law program in Colorado this past summer, which led to the upcoming program.  Star and Karl are very pleased to have been chosen for this work, especially because NBI is a nationally recognized provider of legal education programs.   

Dietze and Davis, P.C. client featured in New York Times

Dietze and Davis, P.C. has been working in the area of carbon storage and sequestration in the context of Public Service Company of Colorado's 2011 Electric Resource Plan.  PSCo currently has an RFP "on the street" to acquire several hundred megawatts of generation resources over the next five years.  Our client, C12 Energy, Inc., has partnered with Summit Power and Summit Carbon and Capture to submit a proposal to PSCo that could bring carbon storage and sequestration technology to Colorado, which would be both an economic and environmental boon to the state.  We are excited for C12 Energy and Summit Power and the deserved attention their businesses are receiving.

The article is available at the following link:  https://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=1038511&f=28&sub=Columnist

Acequia Project

For a number of years now Karl Kumli has studied and written about the history of the Spanish Borderlands of the American Southwest.  The Borderlands States are generally known as of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas (others might add Florida, Louisiana, Utah and others). Now Karl is melding his passion for this history as a supervising attorney for the Colorado Acequia Assistance Project. http://www.colorado.edu/law/acequia-assistance-project  Acequias are a traditional Hispanic form of organization for irrigation ditches which are found in southernmost Colorado.  The project is a joint effort of Colorado Open Lands, the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the CU Law School, and the Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association.  The Acequia Project is an effort to provide low-cost legal assistance and educational materials to Colorado's acequia communities, which include some of the very oldest and most senior water rights in Colorado.  Karl will join Professor Sarah Krakoff (Colorado Law), Sarah Parmar (Colorado Open Lands/Acequia Association), Ryan Golten (a former New Mexico legal services attorney with expertise in acequias), and Peter Nichols (of counsel to Berg, Hill, Greenleaf & Ruscitti, LLP) to supervise law students who are drafting a Legal Handbook for Colorado Acequias, assisting acequias that wish to incorporate or amend their by-laws to enable them to protect their rights, and assisting acequias and irrigators to document their water rights and establish their priority rights to water under Colorado law. 

Karl grew up in Northern California on land which was once part of a Mexican land grant, and has retained an interest in Hispanic culture ever since.  Spanish water law includes an ancient system of water judicature exemplified by El Tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia(España) [The Water Court of Valencia] http://www.tribunaldelasaguas.com/.  Karl learned of the acequia system, which has roots in Roman, Visigothic, Moorish and Spanish law, from a number of sources, and studied its early codification for the New World as part of the system of settlement in the Spanish colonies in the New World in the Recopilación de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias[Recompilation of the Laws of the Kingdoms of the Indies] which was published in Madrid in 1680-81AD. 

For those interested in this topic there are some marvelous resources including (but certainly not limited to):

·         Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexicoby Stanley Crawford

·         The Mother Ditch: How Water Came to a New Mexico Townby Oliver La Farge

·         Acequia: Water-sharing, Sanctity and Placeby Sylvia Rodríguez

·         Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwestby José A. Rivera.

Robyn Kube and Mark Detsky Speak at the Colorado Geothermal Working Group Conference

Robyn Kube and Mark Detsky spoke at the Colorado Geothermal Working Group conference on June 28, 2012, a great event set up by the Colorado Energy Office and the Colorado Geothermal Energy and Heat Pump Association. Robyn discussed the Colorado 1041 permitting process and how developers of projects can navigate local land use laws, and Mark Detsky discussed geothermal energy incentives, products and regulations at the Public Utilities Commissiomn.

Dietze and Davis, P.C. congratulates their client Longview Energy Exchange

Dietze and Davis, P.C. congratulates their client Longview Energy Exchange on the issuance of a Preliminary Permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its proposed new pumped-storage hydroelectric project in northwest Arizona.  The proposed project is a 2000MW facility which can have important benefits for the electrical grid in the entire American Southwest.  Dietze and Davis, P.C. is pleased to be associated with the creative thinking about energy issues which is exemplified by this project.  The preliminary permit means that Longview now will be engaged in substantial studies prior to filing an application for a hydroelectric license with the FERC.

Peter Dietze Volunteers to be of counsel to the Lawyers at The Law Shop

Peter Dietze has volunteered to be of counsel to the lawyers at The Law Shop, a new Boulder law firm led by Ann Mygatt, Esq.  The Law Shop provides services specifically designed to help middle-income, self-represented individuals who are unable to meet the criteria for Legal Aid handle their own legal affairs.  Peter Dietze’s efforts will focus on conferring with attorneys working for the The Law Shop, and providing case strategy and general legal advice.  You can learn more about the The Law Shop and its unique approach to providing legal services here.