Ben Strawn

Ben Strawn is a partner and trial lawyer at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP. His practice focuses on complex commercial and environmental litigation. Mr. Strawn frequently represents businesses in the real estate, natural resources, and engineering industries. His experience includes leading successful trial teams for plaintiffs and defendants with recent representations in Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, and California and in confidential arbitrations. Mr. Strawn also serves as ethics counsel for the firm, and he regularly gives presentations on legal ethics issues.

Mr. Strawn shares the firm’s strong commitment to community service. Mr. Strawn is a trustee for the Colorado Symphony Association and a member of the faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. From 2017-2022, he served on the board of directors for the Faculty of Federal Advocates and was the 2019 board president. He also leads the firm’s participation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado’s pro bono panel program for pro se cases.

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 named a Colorado Future Star in Benchmark Litigation for 2024 and listed on its Under 40 Hot List in 2017-2023.

Representative Experience

• Lead plaintiff’s trial counsel for one of 2021’s top-5 largest jury verdicts in Colorado. Assisted natural resources company in recovering under master service agreement. Successfully defended on appeal.
• 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 multiple successful hearings for injunctions and other expedited relief.
• Authored winning motions to dismiss all claims in fraud cases against franchisor, 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

• “Ethical Considerations in Negotiating Complex Oil & Gas Transactions,” Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law presentation (January 20, 2023) (with Sarah Carlson)
• “Lawyers Who Think: Ethics Trivia,” Faculty of Federal Advocates Webinar (November 10, 2022) (with Kendra Beckwith)
• “Trials in the Pandemic,” DGS Webinar (September 28, 2022) (with Sarah Barr)
• “Legal Ethics in the News,” Faculty of Federal Advocates Webinar (December 16, 2021)
• “Ethics for In-House Counsel,” DGS Webinar (November 4, 2021) (with Mike Richardson)
• “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)