1976, December, Pg. 1823. Legislative Action Report.

• Author: by Charles R. Roos

5 Colo.Law. 1823

Colorado Lawyer

1976.

1976, December, Pg. 1823.

Legislative Action Report

1823Vol. 5, No. 9, Pg. 1823Legislative Action Reportby Charles R. RoosCBA public relations and legislative counselWhen the 51st General Assembly convenes January 5, fewer lawyers will be members of the Senate and House than have served there for at least twenty years. Only seven lawyers will be in the Senate and six in the House. The total of thirteen is four fewer than in 1975-1976. Even so, in spite of reduced numbers, lawyers will hold the two top legislative posts---the positions of House speaker, by Ronald H. Strahle, R-Fort Collins, and Senate majority leader, by Richard H. Plock, Jr.---R-Denver.

In the 1950s, the 1960s and early 1970s, the number of attorney-legislators usually fluctuated between twenty and twenty-five. There was a peak in 1965-1966, when eighteen lawyers were in the House and twelve in the Senate. The number dipped to nineteen by 1971, rose to twenty-one in 1973 and then dropped to seventeen in 1975-1976.

Six of the seventeen members who served in 1975-1976 chose not to run this year. Two others were defeated in the Nov. 2 election: Reps. Gerald H. Kopel, D-Denver, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Patricia E. Burrows, D-Broomfield, vice-chairman of the same committee.

The only new lawyer-member of the House is Anne McGill Gorsuch, R-Denver. There are three new lawyer-members of the Senate: Robert S. Wham, R-Denver, Alvin J. Meiklejohn, R-Arvada, and L. Duane Woodard, R-Fort Collins, all of whom succeed lawyers who did not run for re-election.

What is the reason for the decline in the number of attorneys directly involved in the law-making process? Surveys tend to show, of course, that lawyers as a group don't rate at the top of the heap in public esteem. Simply being a lawyer may somehow be a political disadvantage. But two Denver lawyers who have been leaders in the political-legislative process point to another, perhaps more significant factor: The growing demands of the legislature on the time and energy of its members.

Plock, elected again by his GOP colleagues to be their floor leader, said that annual sessions are now so long and interim work is so demanding that fewer and fewer lawyers feel they can afford to serve---at least to serve very long. Allen Dines, a former senator and House...