American Law Institute Elects WTO Partner Evan Stephenson

Denver: The American Law Institute (ALI) has elected Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell (WTO) partner Evan Stephenson to its membership. ALI is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. Membership is limited to 3,000 attorneys nationwide and evenly comprises judges, academicians, and lawyers in private practice and government.

Malcolm Wheeler, a WTO founding partner and ALI member, observes that “Evan is one of the youngest people approved for membership in all my years in ALI. That he has helped develop the law through trial court and appellate litigation, and has published six law review articles without ever having been on a law school faculty, undoubtedly played a major role. This is a significant honor for Evan and the firm.”

ALI members draft, discuss, revise, and publish Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law. These, ALI’s website states, are “enormously influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.”

WTO’s managing partner, Carolyn Fairless, says of Evan’s election, “This is a significant and well-deserved recognition for one of our firm’s finest young lawyers, who is already establishing himself as a leader in the industry. Through ALI, Evan will make an even more meaningful contribution to the law than he already was poised to do.”

ALI members are identified through a confidential nomination process. Selection criteria include professional excellence, achievement, and recognition among one’s peers. Evan recently contributed to the firm’s victory before the Colorado Supreme Court in Travelers v. Stresscon, which Law360 named a Top 5 insurance case nationwide in 2016. In 2017, he co-authored an article published in the Denver Law Review (“Will the Colorado Supreme Court Prevent a Potential Statewide Auto Insurance Crisis? The Impact of the Court of Appeals’ Decision in Fisher v. State Farm,” April 5, 2017).

Evan is Martindale Hubbell AV Peer-Review Rated. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Law, and Colorado Super Lawyers has named Evan to its list of Rising Stars for five straight years. In 2011, the Colorado Civil Justice League selected Evan as its Lawyer of the Year.

Contact: Matt Plavnick | 303.244.0103 | plavnick@wtotrial.com

Since 2004, Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell lawyers have won 140 trial verdicts and complex arbitrations, and 76 significant appeals nationwide for our clients. Established in 1998, WTO currently numbers 100 lawyers. The firm represents sophisticated clients in high-stakes civil trials, appeals, arbitrations, and related matters, including class actions, mass torts, and multidistrict litigation.