CU Law Recognizes Carolyn Fairless with Distinguished Achievement Award

WTO Co-Managing Partner Carolyn Fairless

Denver: Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell (WTO) is pleased to announce that Co-Managing Partner Carolyn Fairless has been named the 2021 winner of the University of Colorado Law School Alumni Distinguished Achievement in Private Practice Award. The award recognizes Fairless’s achievements as a leader in the legal community. A virtual ceremony will celebrate Fairless and other winners on June 17, 2021.
 
“This is a well-deserved honor for Carolyn,” said WTO Partner and former President Hugh Gottschalk. “She is singular in her client service, ethics, and professionalism.” Gottschalk is the 2017 winner of the Distinguished Alumni in Private Practice Award. 
 
Each year, the Law Alumni Board identifies and honors alumni working in private practice, public service, and education. The awards honor individuals who exemplify professionalism, ethics, integrity, community or pro bono service, and service to Colorado Law.  
 
A 1998 graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law, Fairless joined WTO in 2000 as one of its first associates. She has helped lead the firm as Managing Partner since 2012. Fairless primarily represents lawyers and law firms across the country in high-stakes legal professional liability matters. She also regularly represents clients in complex commercial cases. Fairless is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a distinction bestowed on just 1% of practicing trial lawyers. She has taken more than 20 trials and arbitrations to verdict or award during her career. 
 
Fairless has earned numerous recognitions throughout her career: Chambers USA ranks her in Band 2 for Colorado Commercial litigation, placing her among the top 25 commercial litigators in the state; The Best Lawyers in America named her the “Professional Malpractice Defense Lawyer of the Year” for two years in a row, 2020-2021; Colorado Super Lawyers has listed her in the Top 100 and Top 50 Women since 2012; and Law Week Colorado named her a “Top Litigator” in 2018 and “Lawyer of the Year” in 2014. 
 
Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell lawyers have taken more than 1,100 trials and arbitrations to verdict or award and 300 appeals to opinion all across the nation, with exceptional results for our clients. 

Established in 1998, WTO today numbers 100 trial lawyers and litigators. The firm represents sophisticated clients in high-stakes civil trials, appeals, and related litigation ranging from complex commercial to class actions to catastrophic torts.