Ben Strawn

Ben Strawn is a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, where his practice focuses on complex commercial and environmental litigation. Mr. Strawn frequently represents businesses in the natural resources, insurance, and real estate industries. His experience includes representing clients before juries, courts, and arbitrators, with recent representations in courts in Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, and California. Mr. Strawn has defended several class action lawsuits involving insurance, toxic torts, oil and gas royalties, employment, and debt collection practices. In 2018 and 2019, Mr. Strawn was the Trial Department’s deputy practice group leader. He currently serves as ethics counsel for the firm.

Mr. Strawn shares DGS’ strong commitment to community service. He serves on the board of directors for the Faculty of Federal Advocates and was the 2019 board president. Mr. Strawn also serves on the board of directors for AfricAid, Inc., a Denver-based nonprofit helping to educate and empower girls and young women in Tanzania. In 2016, he participated in the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation Impact Denver leadership program. Mr. Strawn currently serves on the board of trustees for the Colorado Symphony.

Prior to joining DGS, Mr. Strawn served as a law clerk to the Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (now an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court). Before clerking, he was an associate with Paul Hastings LLP in San Francisco, California.

Mr. Strawn was recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2016-2018 and listed on Benchmark Litigation’s Under 40 Hot List in 2017-2023.

Representative Experience

• Trial counsel defending an engineering company against $170 million contract, negligence, and fraud allegations. The jury denied fraud and negligence claims and awarded a small fraction of claimed contract damages.
• Lead trial counsel in successful jury trial of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Lead counsel in successful preliminary injunction hearing on behalf of an insurance industry client.
• Authored successful motions to dismiss all claims in complex fraud cases against real estate developer and mining investor.
• Lead counsel for successful motion to dismiss class-wide arbitration claims against oil and gas producer.
• Lead counsel for a bench trial of breach of contract allegations against an engineering company. The court granted partial judgment as a matter of law on some claims and made a minimal award on others.
• Lead counsel in successful arbitration defense of a sub-contractor facing construction defect allegations.
• Special prosecutor in the Denver City Attorney’s Municipal Court Trial Advocacy Program. Mr. Strawn tried 10 cases to juries and two to the court.

Publications & Presentations

• "Trials in the Pandemic," DGS Webinar (September 28, 2022) (with Sarah Barr)
• “How Pandemic Is Affecting The Pace Of Judicial Opinions,” Law360 (July 30, 2020)
• “Is COVID Impacting Judicial Productivity? Definitely Maybe,” Law Week Colorado (June 29, 2020)
• “COVID-19 and UCC Sales of Goods – Impracticability and Other Issues Likely to Arise,” DGS Legal Alert (April 17, 2020)