This month, Colorado Law is proud to honor prominent Denver-based alum, George Brauchler ('95). Brauchler is currently serving as the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, the largest judicial district in the state with more than 930,000 residents in Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln Counties. A veteran litigator, Brauchler has taken more than 140 trials to verdict in state, federal, and military court over the past eighteen years, including several of the state鈥檚 most publicized cases. In addition, he has also been a regular adjunct faculty member of the University of Denver College of Law, Colorado Law, and the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy JAG Schools, earning a reputation as one of the most prolific lecturers and trainers on trial advocacy in the nation.
Brauchler, who is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, has served as Chief of Military Justice for Fort Carson, and with the 4th Infantry Division and the U.S. Division-North in Iraq.
Born in Staten Island, New York, Brauchler and his family relocated to Colorado when he was two years old. Growing up in Lakewood, just outside Denver, Brauchler did not aspire to be a lawyer. Rather, he wanted to be an armor officer in the U.S. Army. In pursuit of that goal he accepted an ROTC Scholarship at the University of Colorado. While there, however, one of his ROTC training officers urged him to consider another route鈥搇aw school and eventually the JAG program. Brauchler received support for the idea from his mother, who was also an attorney and former chief investigator for the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Brauchler took the advice, and, after earning degrees in economics and political science, remained in Boulder and enrolled in the University of Colorado Law School. A trial advocacy class during his second year of law school provided him with his first experience delivering opening and closing arguments and the rest, as they say, is history. The following year Brauchler interned with a District Attorney鈥檚 Office in the First Judicial District, managing to try eight cases while still a student, and confirming that he had found his calling.
Upon graduation after his internship, Brauchler accepted a full-time position with the District Attorney鈥檚 Office in the state鈥檚 First Judicial District encompassing Jefferson and Gilpin Counties. As a young prosecutor he earned a reputation as a top-notch storyteller who embraced the use of new technologies to enhance his courtroom presentations. Brauchler credits his early teaching experiences with helping him think about different ways to use technology to create powerful visual presentations. Finding them effective in the classroom, he decided to bring them to court and was the first attorney to use PowerPoint during a trial in Jefferson County.
Brauchler ultimately left the DA's Office in July 2006 and went into private practice where he helped build the Denver office of Feldman Nagel, LLC from only himself to five attorneys and three support staff, before being called back to active duty and deployed to Iraq in 2010. While he has been an Army Reservist since 1996, he has served on active duty during two mobilizations since 9/11, and upon returning from his most recent deployment in October 2011, he ran for and was elected to his current office in 2012.
With the demands of running the District Attorney鈥檚 Office, raising four young children with his wife, and his continuing obligations as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, Brauchler admits he does not have a great deal of time for outside hobbies. He has, however, found the time to be a Cub Master for his children鈥檚 Cub Scout pack.
Five Questions for George Brauchler (鈥�95)
What is your fondest memory of being a student at Colorado Law?
Graduation. I remember how proud my parents鈥攖he son of a first generation American and a Pennsylvania farm-girl turned civil rights investigator鈥攁nd my brother and sister were. They were as visibly joyful as I was relieved.
What do you know now that you wish you had known in law school?
That law school is as related to the practice of law as reading a book about Olympic swimmers is to swimming in the ocean. Law school鈥檚 great gift to students is to break your brain into thinking like an attorney, not like a 鈥渘ormal鈥� person. The moment the brain breaks鈥攇enerally, at the end of the 1L year鈥攅verything is viewed through a different analytical lens. For instance, an attorney reads a newspaper article and sees completely different issues and unanswered questions than the uninitiated. Every contract becomes a camouflaged minefield. 鈥淢y Cousin Vinny鈥� becomes more than an entertaining movie, it becomes one of the best trial advocacy teaching aids available. An episode of 鈥淟aw and Order鈥� changes from a drama to a comedy, as the time from crime to conviction occurs over 48 minutes. For better or worse, once the brain makes that change, there is no going back. Don鈥檛 worry though, you鈥檒l still love the Buffs and Broncos.听
What advice would you give to current students as they鈥檙e preparing to graduate?
This advice is not as much related to law as it is to life: keep moving forward. You are going to fail, probably repeatedly. Big stuff, small stuff, it doesn鈥檛 matter. You will lose clients and cases. You may get sick or lose someone pivotal in your life. Feel regret, remorse, cry, grieve鈥ll of it. But keep moving forward. Life鈥檚 losers are not those to whom misfortune falls; they are the ones who allow misfortune and misjudgment to define them and stop them. My early dreams were of graduating from West Point at the top of my class to become an active duty Armor (tanks) officer, get married to a woman who would stay at home and raise our two kids (a son and daughter) and retire at 42 to take on some other adventure. I failed to accomplish any of it, and my response to those failures has defined me. Grant me a small, patriotic soapbox: Americans continue to move forward. Take a knee when you must, but get back up and move in any direction, as long as it is forward.
Who was the biggest influence on your career?听听听听听听听听听听听
My parents. They were two people whose words were always far less than their example. They lived (my Mother passed many years ago; Dad is still going strong) principled lives where right and wrong were more than concepts, and faith and mercy were the touchstones of life. Mom despised bullies, and so do I; with three kids at home and a full time job fighting for the civil rights of others, she got through law school in her 40s. I鈥檝e met one person who works as hard as she did: my wife. If I were twice the man I am today, I鈥檇 still be half the man my father is. Dad remains the most ethical and forgiving person I have known.
Of what accomplishment are you most proud?
My family. Corny, maybe. True, definitely. A wife of immeasurable talent, limitless energy, and universal compassion (unless I burn something on the stove), it is impossible for me even today to figure out how she runs a business she started 14 years ago, while raising our four wonderful children鈥nd being the Girl Scout Troop leader, football mom, and volleyball coach. Now imagine doing it while one spouse (me) was in Iraq. By comparison, I am an unaccomplished sloth. Last night, after another day of meetings, media, murder, and mayhem (getting home well after dinner), my oldest son sat on the couch next to me while I worked. He put his arm around me, looked at me and said, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e a really great Dad.鈥澨� To what more can any man aspire?
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