Colin L. Barnacle
I’ve been a Labor & Employment attorney for over 20 years and firmly believe it is, without a doubt, the best legal practice area. For starters, L&E lawyers have the best stories! More importantly, where else can you do everything – get to know your clients’ people and businesses, help them on a daily basis, solve important issues, and even roll up your sleeves and battle it out for them on occasion.
While I have spent most of my career working in law firms, I spent 5 years in-house as the head of international Labor & Employment for 2 separate large, publicly traded companies. Many of my in-house clients previously viewed the legal departments as the “house of no”, often balking at seeking legal advice. My approach was different – I did not view my role as one of saying “yes” or “no”, but rather helping my clients understand why a certain pathway to a business outcome was fraught with untenable legal risk and then helping them find different ways of getting from A to B while mitigating those risks as much as possible. From my perspective, that’s what lawyers are supposed to do.
And this is one of the hallmarks of my practice at Ascent – I will always give it to my clients straight, minimal legalese and no long treatises or, as some of my clients say, “walls of words”. I am practical and no-nonsense, but also very approachable and caring. The creation of Ascent is a career-long dream of mine and my co-founder Emily, a chance to create a law firm that truly listens to clients and is responsive to their needs in every way – from providing premium legal service at reasonable rates and cost certainty to delivering practical and efficient legal solutions to the camaraderie and partnership we develop with our clients.
Away from the law, you’ll find me spending time with my loved ones, rooting for my beloved Denver Broncos, petting every dog that crosses my path, marveling over architecture, particularly Frank Lloyd Wright and other mid-century modern architects, planning my novel based on Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks”, and learning to play the harmonica.
