Richard "Dick" Holme

Holme, Richard "Dick"
11/6/1941 - 1/14/2023

Born November 6, 1941 in Denver to parents Peter H. Holme, Jr. and Lena Phillips Holme, Richard "Dick" Holme was raised in Denver, graduated from East High School and then from Williams College. Dick attended the University of Colorado School of Law, and while there met Barbara Friel, of Wilmington, Delaware, whom he married in 1965. They have two children, Daniel and Robert, and a marvelous grandson, Jaxson.

Dick graduated from the CU law school (J.D., Order of the Coif and Managing Editor of the University of Colorado Law Review, 1965), and then joined the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham & Stubbs as an associate until he became a Deputy District Attorney in 1969. After three years in that office, Dick returned to Davis, Graham & Stubbs where he became a partner and worked there for 50 years until his full retirement. During his career, Dick had a very broad range of trial practice. Dick tried almost 70 jury trials, a number of trials to the court and over 30 appeals in both state and federal courts. For many years he commented that he had tried "one of everything and two of nothing." Early in his career, he was instrumental in clearing the legal hurdles that were then blocking the development of the town of Highlands Ranch.

Dick's primary interest was in improving the quality of the legal profession and making the trial of cases more efficient and less expensive. Dick held numerous leadership positions in both the Denver and Colorado Bar Associations. He was deeply involved in lawyer discipline as a member of the Supreme Court Grievance Committee (1979-85); serving as a Hearing Board member deciding cases of alleged attorney misconduct (1985-2014); and mediating numerous disciplinary proceedings (1992-2014).

Dick's work on improving trial practices included being a member of: the select drafting committee for Colorado's new Criminal Code (1970-71); the first Colorado Jury Instruction Committee (1972-73); the Colorado Supreme Court Committee on Civil Rules (1994-2019); and serving as the prime draftsman of rules relating to Simplified Procedure; Appointive Judges; clarifying the calculation of deadlines for pretrial actions; expedited pretrial procedure; judicial case management; discovery; and subpoenas for medical records. Dick was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers (1983), was Colorado State Chair (1994-96), was a member of the ACTL Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice, and was the lead author of Working Smarter, Not Harder: How Excellent Judges Manage Cases, a manual for state and federal trial court judges nationwide on techniques for increasing pretrial efficiency to obtain just, speedy and inexpensive handling of cases. He also wrote over 15 articles about rules that were published in The Colorado Lawyer. Dick was listed in Best Lawyers in America, Colorado Super Lawyers and Who's Who in America.

In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Legal Aid Foundation of Colorado, 1120 Lincoln Street, Suite 701, Denver, CO 80203, http://www.legalaidfoundation.org .