University of Denver Sturm College of Law to Recognize 2019 Law Stars
Annual gala honors acclaimed alumni and faculty
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law will recognize its 2019 Law Stars honorees at a gala event on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at the Hyatt Convention Center.
DU Law Stars has honored distinguished alumni and faculty at this annual event since 1993. Proceeds from this year’s event will go to the Denver Law Fund, which supports the Sturm College of Law’s most important strategic priorities, including affordability, curricular innovation and postgraduate professional opportunities. The event includes a personal commemorative video of each honoree, recounting accomplishments both professional and personal. Learn more about DU’s Law Stars program.
A reception begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and honoree video tributes. Members of the media are invited to attend and should RSVP to DU Media Relations at (720) 608-0240 or dumediarelations@gmail.com.
The following individuals are receiving honors this year:
Noreen Krall, JD’94: William L. Keating Outstanding Alumni Award
Noreen Krall is the vice president and chief litigation counsel at Apple Inc., where she is responsible for all aspects of Apple’s global commercial and intellectual property litigation. Krall is also the co-founder and board chair of the ground-breaking ChIPs Network.
Prior to joining Apple, Ms. Krall was the vice president and chief IP counsel for Sun Microsystems, providing legal counsel over all facets of Sun’s intellectual property assets and leading Sun’s engagement on intellectual property law and policy issues.
From engineer to lawyer, she started her career at IBM where she worked for 12 years and held various positions in both the engineering and legal departments, supporting IBM’s server, storage and global services divisions.
Krall has been frequently recognized for her leadership skills, winning the YWCA Tribute to Women award in May 2008, being named one of the 50 Most Influential People in IP in 2010 and named as one of the Top 100 In-house Counsel in 2013. She was the only woman named to the first list of Top 40 IP Market Makers by the global IAM group in 2014 and was named as one of the Top 50 Women in Tech Law in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Krall is known just as much for her commitment to mentoring others as she is for her energy and business acumen. She has served as a mentor in her time at Sun and Apple, as well as co-founded ChIPs, a professional support network that has made monumental strides for women looking to grow their careers in the technology and IP industries. Her passion for connection and mentorship has helped forge relationships and innovation through diversity of thought, participation and engagement.
The Honorable William R. Lucero, JD’72: Robert H. McWilliams, Jr. Alumni Professionalism Award
Judge William R. Lucero has served the Colorado Supreme Court as the Presiding Disciplinary Judge since his appointment in 2004, where he hears cases involving attorney ethics violations. He is the state’s second-ever Presiding Disciplinary Judge.
His distinguished career of nearly 50 years has led him to serve both the people of Colorado and the nation in a variety of positions that span the law spectrum. Judge Lucero served in the Denver District Attorney’s Office from 1972 to 1990 and the United States Attorney’s Office from 1990 to 2001, where he supervised the Complex Prosecution and the Appellate Units. He then returned to the Denver District Attorney’s Office and served as Chief Trial Deputy until 2004, when the Colorado Supreme Court appointed him Presiding Disciplinary Judge.
In 2002, Judge Lucero was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a past member of numerous committees focusing on professional responsibility matters, including the Colorado Supreme Court Grievance Committee, the Attorney Regulation Committee, and the Federal Committee on Conduct. He received the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association’s award for Outstanding Hispanic Lawyer of the Year in 1995.
Judge Lucero is known by his colleagues for his commitment to advancing the legal community and the understanding of legal ethics through outreach and education outside of his chamber. He can be found training Colorado lawyers, bar associations and citizens about the disciplinary system and legal ethics and professionalism throughout the state. He is an active participant in For This We Stand, a program designed to educate law students about professionalism, as well as the Judicially Speaking program that focuses on the non-legal community.
Associate Professor of the Practice, Alexi Freeman, JD’07: Robert B. Yegge Excellence in Teaching Award
Professor Alexi Freeman, Director of Externships and Public Interest Initiatives, is nationally known as one of the top public interest professors in the nation for good reason.
Freeman has a distinguished record working alongside low-income communities and communities of color as a racial justice and legal advocate. Prior to joining Denver Law, she worked as an attorney at Advancement Project, a national civil rights group, where she assisted grassroots organizations across the country on social justice advocacy campaigns around education and juvenile justice policy, housing and voting rights issues. Freeman continues to support grassroots communities and social justice movements pro bono.
She is a member of the National Association of Pro Bono Professionals and serves on the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers. She also serves as Denver Law’s faculty advisor to the Chancellor’s Scholars program, as a member of the Rocky Mountain Collective on Race, Place and the Law, and the chair of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program Committee. Freeman’s work has earned her numerous awards, most recently winning the Center for Legal Inclusiveness’ 2018 Individual Inclusiveness@Work Award.
In addition to serving as a respected advocate and educator, Freeman is also revered by Denver Law students for her efforts in building a community dedicated to pursuing the public good and in training the next generation of social justice advocates. She is often the recipient of Denver Law’s student-selected Most Outstanding Faculty Member and Mentorship Awards.
