PURPOSE & PASSION

Women lawyers define success
by doing what they love

By KATHY SMITH
Photography KIMBERLY DAWN

Thirty years ago, females were in the minority in law schools around the country, comprising a mere 18 percent of students. Today, 50 percent of the graduating students are women, and that number is climbing annually.

From courtrooms to depositions, these dynamic, intelligent attorneys are among the best in their field of law. We speak with five attorneys who share their stories about their profession.

MARYANN MCGEADY
While petite in stature, MaryAnn McGeady is nothing less than a powerhouse in person. For most of her impressive years, the odds were stacked against her succeeding, but this determined woman fought through some of life's most difficult challenges and graduated with a law degree — summa cum laude — from the University of Southern California.

McGeady grew up on Long Island with her five brothers, dad and occasional mom. It was a family rocked by years of parental strife that left the children insecure. There was a tough upbringing in the McGeady family with a stern father and a flighty mother. "I quit counting after my mother left us 42 times," the thoughtful attorney recalls. When her father faced a disability and was forced to move on from his insurance salesman’s position, he moved the family to the opposite coast to start life anew in California.

McGeady respecfully recalls, "There is no question my parents had issues, but I learned so much being raised by my dad." The family lived in a single-wide trailer in a campground. To shower, she joined the other campers in the communal bathrooms for a frigid rinsing. "Character building,” she comments.

But it didn't work for McGeady. After six months, she stood up to her parents — yes, her mother joined them again — and told them to figure out what their problems were and get their acts together. "I told them I couldn't live like this any more, that I wanted to be a lawyer and needed to get an education, and that wouldn't happen with all of the disruption," she reflects, while smiling at the fact she was only 15.

She ran away from home and moved back to New York and into best friend Patty Ramirez's home. There, McGeady worked at getting control of her life. "One thing my dad always told me is education is the only way to get control of your life and help people," she reflects. Her dad passed away in 1987 and always had a tremendous influence on her life.

McGeady's life with the Ramirez family helped her achieve her educational goals. She worked full time as a waitress throughout all of her schooling. She managed to achieve scholarships for both undergraduate school at Long Island University and law school at the University of Southern California and financed the rest with student loans. "Living with the Ramirez family shaped me into who I am today," she recalls. And she continues, "My dad had his own issues, but I loved him no matter what."

Fast forward to McGeady's life today. As a principal in the firm McGeady Sisneros, P.C., a firm she opened in 1988, just six years after her graduation, she practices district law. While initially practicing in the oil and gas area, she was exposed to districts, governments and communities.

"I realized early in practice that I was born to do district law, and honestly, to this day I am very excited about every project," she says.

It is clear when talking with McGeady that she loves being a lawyer. "It's funny, the thing people say to me the most is that I don't look like a lawyer," she says with a smile. At her last mammogram, while in a vulnerable position, the technician asked her what she did, and McGeady received the common response. She retorted, "Who looks like their profession in this position?"

The land development process is complex, as districts are government entities that build new communities. McGeady managed to successfully work contracts on such enormous projects as the I-25 interchanges, Stapleton and Panorama Business Park that shared new water and sewage systems and incorporated many different revenue streams.

When she works on a project, she often tours model homes to understand home building. She says she toured so many developments with her family that one of the boys announced that a certain development was nice, but didn't have enough median landscaping. She turned to her stay-at-home husband and said, "We need to take the kids to more parks and fewer model homes."

McGeady works with the church in Navajo Nation, where her children have attended camp for six years, and the Sawmill Mission project. She also works with Harvest of Hope. What does the future hold for her? "I am waiting to be a grandmother, and I cannot conceive of stopping work," she responds.

JUNE BAKER LAIRD
Ask 100 high school students what they aspire to be when they venture into the "real" world, and they are likely to offer answers that vary tremendously from their actual career paths — but not June Baker Laird. She knew from the moment she entered a law firm in her teenage years that law was her love.

Growing up in Hutchinson, Kansas, Laird was encouraged by her mother to develop a skill that would land her a job anywhere — typing. She typed her way through high school, undergraduate and law school, always in law firms. She not only typed but learned all aspects of a law practice, eventually becoming a legal assistant.

It may have been many years around lawyers that helped her react well to a discriminatory situation her first year in practice. Laird worked in oil and gas. Her male mentor wanted her to get experience with depositions and sent her to depose a witness. Entering the room, Laird was promptly asked by the two men to bring them coffee. "I agreed, but lingered enough to listen to them discussing their case in front of me," she recalls with a smile. "When I came back to begin the deposition, you should have seen their faces," she says.

Practicing law has changed tremendously over the years, not only for Laird, but all female attorneys. "When I first started, women lawyers were not allowed to get out of their chairs in court," she continues, "but today, it is a wonderful environment. There are so many opportunities for women, and we are welcomed everywhere."

Laird earned a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989, practicing for a few years before she moved to Colorado to join the firm of White and Steele. In 1996, she married Glen Laird and became a stepmother to two children, Meghan and Matt. Says Laird, "I've tried hundreds of challenging cases, but being a stepmom was the hardest job I've ever had. Today, it is much easier, and I'm so lucky and proud to be a part of their lives."

It was at that time that Laird moved to Treece Alfrey law firm and engaged in medical and legal malpractice defense work. "I gained valuable experience there," she says.

Today, Laird is managing partner in McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, where she practices medical malpractice law. "As a defense attorney, I feel my job is mainly risk management," she says. Often, Laird assumes the role of a psychologist, as health professionals can be very scared at the prospect of appearing in court. "My job is to calm my clients and help them with their concerns and minimize risk," she explains.

As a self-described type-A personality, Laird attributes her drive and ambition to her parents and role model sister, Kathleen Dixon, who is also an attorney. "My parents were very hardworking people and certainly encouraged me to go after my dreams," she recalls.

Laird is a board member of the Colorado Judicial Institute, a nonpartisan group devoted to the excellence and independence of state courts, and works for the improvement of judiciary education. "I do this because I believe and know that judges are the backbone of our system," she says.

She is also a board member of the Colorado Lawyers Committee, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing pro bono work for children, the poor and other disadvantaged groups.

In her spare time, and it's hard to imagine she has a lot, Laird enjoys horseback riding with her family, running and occasionally cooking. "I just don't have the time to entertain and have dinner parties like I used to, but I love cooking with my husband," she reflects.

ANNIE KAO
When Steve Farber, of Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, suggested speaking to rising star Annie Kao (pronounced with a G), we knew she would be a dynamo.

Kao grew up in Denver with her parents and twin sister, Angie. Her parents emigrated from Taiwan to America to further their education. Her mother sought a master’s in biology and her father, a Ph.D. in biochemistry. But it was really a move motivated to give their daughters the opportunity to be educated in America.

Both girls fulfilled their parents’ dream of achieving higher education, with Annie a lawyer and Grace a family practice physician in Fruita. Says Kao, "I'm the oddball in the family who did not have any interest in the sciences and went to law school."

She continues, "My story is really my parents’ story." Kao had the usual chores expected of young girls — washing the dishes, cleaning her room — but she had an additional job that was unique to her family. "By the time I was in elementary school, I had to proofread my parents’ papers because English was their second language," she explains.

Kao went to Cherry Creek High School and then on to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where she graduated magna cum laude with a liberal arts degree. She earned a J.D. from George Washington University in 2002.

Moving back to Colorado, Kao worked as a judicial clerk for Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey in the Colorado Supreme Court. It was this position and the influence of Justice Mullarkey that shaped her views on practicing law. Mullarkey, she says, "instilled in me a sense of practicality and of fairness that affect the way I practice law today." Kao says that law school students often get hung up with high ideals of what it is like to practice law and forget that fairness involves realizing that there are two parties with real problems.

In 2003, Kao joined Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, where she is a commercial litigator. Her mentor, Stan Garnett, engaged her in some of his highest-profile cases, including a $39 million judgment for an Italian family in Florida. But it was the Great Sand Dunes case that proved to be one of the most interesting cases to date. It involved selling 100,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy to expand the Great Sand Dunes into a
national park, and the case took some crazy legal turns. "It was fascinating to be working on a case of this magnitude and having it tried in this tiny courtroom in Saguache County. It was a great experience," she says. The firm won the case.

Kao says, "Today I make a living writing legal briefs and arguments as part of my job as a commercial litigator at one of the largest law firms in Colorado." She attributes a lot of her confidence in litigating to Garnett, who, she says, is "a truly fantastic mentor." She continues, "He and the rest of the great people in this firm make it very easy to come to work."

Kao says the firm is exceptional in that they encourage everyone to give to the community and bar associations. Of Garnett, she says, "He and I could not be more different on the outside, and yet it is his mentorship and demand for high quality work that has taught me not only how to litigate high-stakes, challenging cases, but also how to enjoy the process and appreciate our court system.”

She is president-elect of Colorado Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Says Kao, "I really like community-oriented activities. One of my favorites is delivering food baskets for needy Asian families." Another favored hobby is skiing. "When I graduated from Amherst, I took off a year to work as a ski instructor at Keystone before entering law school," she says.

JAN STEIERT
Jan Steiert has a passion for traveling and a penchant for learning. Having grown up in a family that lived in foreign countries, Steiert and her three siblings became travel enthusiasts.

Steiert's father, an accomplished international businessman, moved the family to Iceland and Thailand from their home in McLean, Virginia. "It was exhilarating for me to experience my new life
in these countries," she says.

It was at the University of Michigan that she became interested in politics. The liberal arts school was a hotbed for anti-establishment activists during the political unrest of the ‘70s. "It forced me to try to understand what is America's place in the world, and to think deeply," she reflects.

Upon graduation, Steiert moved to Boulder to find out about this part of the country. She landed a job at the University of Colorado in the provost's office and then as an assistant to the chairman of the English department. "What I was lacking at the time was an air of direction and conviction, but I knew a couple of women who went to law school and thought I'd try that," she says.

Steiert met her husband, Bob, her third year of law school. They married, and following graduation and a brief stint clerking for a judge, she went to work for Holme, Roberts & Owen. She is in her 27th year of practice with the firm and has been a partner since 1986.

But for a brief time in the ‘80s when oil prices plummeted, Steiert has practiced in the natural resources field. She worked under the tutelage of Ted Stockmar, who helped her understand the complexities of buying and selling oil and gas properties. "The oil and gas people are risk takers, and they admired women who gambled and stepped up in areas not known to attract women," Steiert explains.

With oil and gas properties all over the world, Steiert is able to fulfill her lifelong passion of traveling and exploring new places. It isn't always contractual negotiations that fill Steiert's day, as she recalls one case of a remediation of a Superfund site. After a CU scientist discovered that cow manure soaks up toxins in soil, Steiert had to negotiate a purchase agreement for a large quantity of cow manure. "I just burst out laughing
during the process," she says.

Today, Steiert's work on the Apex silver project takes her to Bolivia and Chile to develop an infrastructure for a silver mine in an old volcanic crater. At the top of the reserve, there was an ancient town of 400 people who attended a church built circa 1500. It was necessary to move the town to start mining the silver. "They deconstructed the church stone by stone and reconstructed it in an area where they now have electricity, running water and greenhouses to raise crops," she explains. Apex built a small hotel and set up a foundation for the inhabitants of this town.

If helping build a town for people in abject poverty, negotiating oil and gas properties and traveling the world isn't enough, Steiert also served on Cherry Hills’ city council for 12 years. She is a board member of the University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center and serves on the University of Colorado Law Alumni board, working on a campaign to raise money for the Wolf law building.

Steiert enjoys spending time with her husband, Bob, whom she refers to as "her hero," and their son, Jason, a student at Colorado College and an accomplished soccer player. "Jason is a very creative person and a talented cook. He makes the most amazing meals," she says. The family enjoys mountain biking, skiing and eating Jason's culinary creations.

ANNE VITEK
Not going to college was not an option for Anne Vitek and her three siblings, even though neither parent had that opportunity. "My parents wanted us to get an education to support ourselves and to be self-sufficient," Vitek says.

Vitek grew up in a small town in Florida, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. From a very early age, she knew she wanted to be a lawyer and was encouraged by her father and mother to pursue an advanced degree. She put herself through Stetson University and graduated a year early by taking summer school courses. When three of her friends decided not to go with her on a European exploration, Vitek went alone and traveled throughout Europe for 13 months, a time that gave her freedom and confidence. Ultimately she returned to the states, with student loans looming.

She worked for the state of Florida in unemployment compensation, and it was a judge who encouraged Vitek to consider a career in law. Searching for law schools, she chose the University of Denver. She says, "It was one of the few programs in the country where I could work during the day and go to law school at night."

Following graduation, Vitek worked with the city attorney’s office in Lakewood, where she met her husband,
Jeff Doniger. Her first few years in private practice were in criminal law."Criminal law was really fun, and every case is unique," she says. She tells the story of one such case involving a Wyoming defendant accused of stealing elk horn, a serious offense. She thought the case would be over in a day, but it went two days. At any other time in Cheyenne, that would have been no problem, but this trial was during Cheyenne Frontier Days, and the hotels were packed and the city was overcrowded with people. "I had my suit and briefcase and was walking through throngs of cowboys," she recalls with a smile. She then had to drive to Fort Collins to find a room.

In 1985 she decided to broaden her legal experiences and opened her own firm to practice family and general law. Her husband joined two years later, and the firm Vitek Doniger was formed.

Vitek has twice served as president of the Alliance of Professional Women and is a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. She also works with Emily Griffith on the business advisory committee and does pro bono work for the poor. Vitek says, "The system is stacked against the poor, and I try to help as much as possible."

When she and Jeff are not at work, they are likely studying wines or photography and listening to jazz. Recently, they purchased an apartment in Paris that they retreat to several times a year. "Paris is actually a jazz mecca," Vitek says.