Colorado Women's Bar Association

MARY LATHROP TRAILBLAZER AWARD

The CWBA's prestigious Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award, our highest honor, is presented annually to an outstanding female attorney who has enriched the community through her legal and civic activities. The Award recognizes the tradition begun by Mary Lathrop, an early woman lawyer in Colorado who blazed many trails for other women in the profession.

2021 - Judge Karen Ashby

2020 - Velveta Golightly-Howell

2019 - Alli Gerkman

Nominations for the 2022 Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award were due by
5 p.m., September 15, 2021 and are no longer being accepted.

This year's winner was announced December 2, 2021 during our Annual Holiday Party and will be honored during a special reception at the 45th Annual CWBA Convention on Friday, May 20, 2022, at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek.

Please contact the CWBA’s Professional Advancement Committee Co-Chairs Andrea Bronson or Veronique Van Gheem if you have any questions about the award or nomination process.

Meet Our 2022 Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award Winner

The Hon. Theresa A. Spahn
Denver County Court Judge & CWBA Past President

Throughout her successful career, Judge Spahn has created a long trail that has illustrated each of the traits this award was created to honor.

The first in her family to graduate from college, let alone law school, Judge Spahn has always been passionate about advocacy, contributing to the community, and promoting women in the law. She has also been a long-time member and supporter of the CWBA, having served as CWBA President from 2007-2008. Judge Spahn was also honored by the CWBA as our 2018 Judicial Excellence Awardee.
Please join us in recognizing Judge Theresa Spahn for her outstanding contributions to the legal profession.

We are proud to present Judge Spahn with the 2022 CWBA Mary Lathrop Award, as she embodied the intelligence, strength, stamina, and character of a true trailblazer!

Watch the video of our 2021 Mary Lathrop Trailblazers Award Celebration
held virtually on May 21, 2021, as we recognized our 2021 Honoree Judge Karen Ashby and our 2020 Honoree Velveta Golightly-Howell.

History of the Mary Lathrop Award

Mary Lathrop (September 1880)

Mary Lathrop was born in 1865 to a Philadelphia Quaker family. At age 19, she became a reporter at a local newspaper. She had a distinguished career until poor health forced her to choose a new profession at age 30. She came to Colorado and pursued a legal degree at the University of Denver College of Law where she graduated first in her class. She passed the Colorado Bar in 1896 with a score that would stand as a record until 1941.

Lathrop hung her shingle in Colorado in 1897, specializing in probate law. She continued to influence this field, helping to redraft probate statutes and assisting in developing the Small Guardianship Law. Her most famous case was Clayton v. Hallett, which established the law of charitable bequests in Colorado.

Lathrop was a woman whose many “firsts” would inspire others to follow in her footsteps. After being turned down twice because “women should not practice law,” she was the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court in Colorado. She was also the first woman to open a law office in Colorado, the first woman to argue before the Colorado Supreme Court, the first woman to join the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, and was one of the first two women to join the American Bar Association.

Lathrop recognized the importance of community involvement. During her lifetime, she made anonymous donations to help students. She also received numerous awards for her service work and excellence in the legal profession. After her death in 1951, she left the bulk of her estate to establish a student loan fund at the University of Denver.

In order to preserve and foster the memory of this woman who has left a legacy for us all, the Colorado Women’s Bar Association (CWBA) began presenting the Mary Lathrop Award in 1991 and has made an annual presentation each year since. The CWBA gives the Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award to an outstanding female attorney who has enriched the community through her legal and civic activities.

The CWBA is grateful for the ongoing and generous financial support of Lewis Roca, LLP for sponsoring this award’s presentation each year at the CWBA Annual Convention.

Past Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award Honorees

2021  The Honorable Karen Ashby
2020  Velveta Golightly-Howell
2019  Alli Gerkman
2018  Beth H. McCann
2017  Rebecca C. Alexander
2016  Helen C. Shreves
2015  The Honorable Sandra I. Rothenberg
2014  The Honorable Patricia Coan
2013  Lorraine Parker and Doris Truhlar
2012  The Honorable Janice B. Davidson, and Lynn Feiger
2011  The Honorable Mary A. Celeste
2010  Deborah R. Adams
2009  The Honorable Elizabeth A. Starrs
2008  Lynda A. McNeive
2007  Pamela Robillard Mackey
2006  Fay M. Matsukage
2005  The Honorable Nancy E. Rice
2004  Marla Williams
2003  The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Mary E. Ricketson
2002 The Honorable Mary Mullarkey
2001  The Honorable Rebecca Love Kourlis
2000  The Honorable Christine Arguello and Dottie Wham
1999  Gale Norton and Gail Schoettler
1998  Susan Barnes and The Honorable Claudia Jordan
1997  Cathlin Donnell and Mary Hoagland
1996  Sheila Hyatt, Barbara Salomon, and Mimi Wesson
1995  Norma Comstock, Karen Steinhauser, and The Honorable Zita L. Weinshienk
1994  Natalie S. Ellwood
1993  The Honorable Jean Dubofsky, Marilyn Traub Meadoff, and The Honorable Jacqueline St. Joan
1992  Mary Brickner, Margaret B. Ellison, and Brooke Wunnicke
1991  Elizabeth Adams Conour, Elizabeth L.Guyton Girch, Estelle Hadley, and Helen T. Street