Municipal Law and Special Districts

The Cohen Law Group represents municipalities and special districts, but where there is no conflict of interest, the firm also represents individuals and businesses involved in transactions or disputes with municipalities or special districts.

Mark Cohen has served in all three branches of municipal government. As City Prosecutor for the City of Westminster he successfully represented the City in dozens of jury trials involving allegations of domestic violence, drafted and interpreted ordinances, authored opinions on municipal home rule, and prepared memos for the City Attorney and the City Council on a variety of issues. As a member of the Executive Board of the Colorado Municipal League he worked with the CML staff to monitor developments in the legislature and to advocate on behalf of municipalities. As a municipal judge for Boulder for more than eighteen months, Mr. Cohen regularly heard criminal cases and cases involving alleged violations of zoning laws. He interpreted city ordinances and dealt with requests under the Colorado Open Records Act. As an elected member of his town’s Board of Trustees for four years and Board of Zoning Adjustment for two years prior to that, Mr. Cohen is familiar with the Colorado Open Meetings Law. He is also familiar with the laws governing intergovernmental agreements (IGA’s) and has first-hand experience in drafting and implementing them.

As attorneys in private practice Mark Cohen and Susan Horner, who is of counsel to the firm, both successfully represented plaintiffs in civil suits brought against political subdivisions. They are both thoroughly familiar with the Governmental Immunity Act. Ms. Horner has litigated the GIA on several occasions, most recently in Christel v. City of Boulder, 02 CA 2249 (Colo. App., Jan. 18, 2005).

Ms. Horner has experience in eminent domain, generally related to broad issues concerning the government’s ability to enforce restrictions for the protection of resources and other environmental matters. She represented the National Wildlife Federation as an intervenor on behalf of the State of Wyoming in Clajon Production Corp. v. Petera, 70 F.3d 1566 (10th Cir. 1995), a case involving the ability of the state to issue regulations regarding use of its resources, and when such regulations may become a regulatory taking.

As counsel for High Country Fire Protection District, Mark Cohen is familiar with the laws pertaining to special districts in general as well as the laws that apply specifically to fire protection districts.

Both Mark Cohen and Ms. Horner have experience in the interpretation and application of the TABOR Amendment.