Six of the Greatest: a Tribute to Outstanding Lawyers in Colorado History
| Publication year | 1984 |
| Pages | 1173 |
1984, July, Pg. 1173. Six of the Greatest: A Tribute to Outstanding Lawyers in Colorado History
The six lawyers honored in this issue of The Colorado Lawyer are the second group of six presented in this annual feature (see July 1983 issue). These lawyers were chosen by the Awards Committee of the Colorado Bar Association from suggestions submitted by members of the Bar. Other lawyers will be so honored in future years.
The Awards Committee, chaired by Robert H. Sonheim of Arvada, selected these deceased lawyers from a distinguished list of nominees because during their careers, they "have exemplified the high ideals of the legal profession; made significant contributions to the Bar Association; have been of aid and assistance to other lawyers, particularly younger lawyers; were active in civic and community affairs; were instrumental in accomplishing some significant changes in the law; promoted public confidence in the legal profession; and demonstrated competency in the practice of law."
On April 9, 1909, a new office was opened in the First National Bank Building in Greeley, Colorado. The modest shingle read, "William R. Kelly, Attorney at Law." There began an active practice that spanned more than sixty years. He retired when he was 75 years old and lived well into his 90's.
Bill Kelly was seven years old when, in February of 1890, he arrived in Greeley accompanying his parents, David and Christian Kelly, and his brothers and sisters. Their first farm home was three miles north of Greeley. It was bounded on the north by the Union Canal No. 2 and the Union Colony fence. Canal No. 2 was Bill's first introduction to an irrigation ditch. Later, he was introduced to the ways of water at the working end of an irrigation shovel.
Bill attended country schools, then graduated from Greeley High in 1901. With hard work, ingenuity and a little hard cash, he completed his B.A. and LL.B. degrees in 1907 at the University of Colorado. He worked as a reporter for both the Boulder Camera and the Boulder Herald to help pay his way. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega, Phi Delta Phi, Heart and Dagger and the Order of the Coif. A manager of the university's newspaper, The Silver and Gold, during his senior year in law school, Bill concluded his university years by being selected as class orator. He spoke for all who had completed their course of study, but the words he spoke so earnestly were prophetic of the place he, himself, would fill in later years.
. . .in return for the extraordinary privileges, there is a corresponding obligation to make recompense. There is the duty upon us, who have been given higher training under the patronage of a republican government, to minister, with this special training and knowledge of the professions, to industry, to the ills of fellow men and to justice in the betterment of society.
As a young lawyer, Bill was appointed water referee from 1911 to 1925, serving Water Districts 1 and 2 on the South Platte. He was also city attorney for Greeley from 1916 to 1921 and Weld County attorney from 1921 to 1928.
In private practice, Bill was counsel for the New Cache La Poudre Irrigation and the Cache La Poudre Reservior Companies for forty years. He also represented numerous individuals, other irrigation companies, banks, towns and local businesses. As his reputation grew, clients came from other parts of the state. His practice extended to various U.S. District and Circuit Courts and to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was also special counsel for Colorado in the Wyoming v. Colorado and the Nebraska v. Colorado litigation over apportionment of interstate streams from 1930 to 1938.
Because new questions, both substantive and procedural, were being raised in water law, many of Bill Kelly's cases
were appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. Some of these decisions became landmarks in the developing western doctrine of prior appropriation.
Bill received the William Lee Knous Award from Colorado University as an alumnus who had distinguished himself in his chosen field. Senator Ed Johnson referred to him as "Mr. Water Law," reflecting the achievements for which he was recognized in the complex area of water law. He often was called before the U.S. Senate and House committees on proposed water projects and frequently appeared before irrigation committees of the Colorado General Assembly on pending water bills.
Bill Kelly was one of the initiators of the Colorado-Big Thompson project, beginning in 1933. He was an original member of the "Grand Lake Committee" and wrote the articles of incorporation for its successor, the Northern Colorado Water Users Association. This association succeeded in securing federal approval for the project.
He and Thomas A. Nixon wrote the unique legislation creating the Water Conservancy District Act of 1937, which authorized the organization of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. They established the Act's constitutionality in a quo warranto proceeding in the Colorado Supreme Court. This enabled the District to contract with the Department of the Interior to repay the construction loan for the irrigation facilities included in the Colorado-Big Thompson project.
Kelly was an active participant in the organization of the District and in drafting the repayment contract. He was attorney for the District until the project was completed in 1956. During this period, he carried out the District's obligation to resolve all legal issues relating to the construction and operation of the project. It took several years to resolve these problems, which included the condemnation of rights of way, construction contracts and the adjudication of water rights. Bill had the primary responsibility of representing both the federal government and the District in the City and County of Denver v. Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. This adjudication established the project's right to divert 310,000 acre feet of water from the Colorado River.
Bill published several articles on water law in both national and regional law journals. Among these were "A River is a Treasure," "Navigation and Irrigation in the United States," "Colorado's Ground Water Act of 1957," "Rationing the Rivers" and "Water Conservancy District (Quasi-Municipal Corporations with General Taxing Powers)." One of his articles, "Water and Law in a Dry and Thirsty Land," was read into the Congressional Record on July 12, 1956, by Senator Eugene Millikin in support of the Frying Pan-Arkansas Project, a water diversion project which is still in progress.
Bill gave generously of his time to the bar associations and community activities. He was a member and chairman of the Supreme Court Board of Law Examiners from 1920 to 1937; president of the Colorado Bar Association from 1939 to 1940; and a member of the Colorado Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, and the Weld County Bar. As President-elect of the Colorado Bar Association, he chaired the Committee on Legal Institutes, which organized the forerunner of our present continuing legal education program.
Bill was president of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce in 1916. As a lifelong member, he served the Trinity Episcopal Church as a vestryman for twenty-nine years. He was a member of the Greeley Public Library Board from 1912 to 1938 and of the Weld County Hospital Board from 1944 to 1954. He drafted the enabling legislation for the organization of both county-wide libraries and hospitals. Membership in the Masons and Rotary brought further community involvement.
William Robert Kelly's dedication and expertise in water law brought him national recognition by his peers; his contributions to his community brought him the recognition and affection of his fellow citizens.
Carl Cline was one of those rare and very fortunate lawyers who have the intelligence, instinct and intuition to try cases as they should be tried.
I met Carl about fifteen years ago. He officed with my firm and, as a law clerk, I would frequently find myself in the library with him. Although by then he had limited his practice to a few estate matters, the spark and wit which must have dominated many a court-room were still evident. My reflections on Carl's career are drawn largely from anecdotes he related to me himself or those I have collected from his colleagues.
Born in Russell, Kansas, in 1892, Carl received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1916 from the University of Colorado. In 1919, he received his LL.B. degree from Yale University and was admitted to the Bar in Colorado.
He began his career as a deputy district attorney in Denver. Depending on whether or not his party was in control of the district attorney's office, he was either the prosecutor or the chief defense attorney in numerous major criminal cases, mostly in Denver and Golden. He was once president of the First Judicial District Bar Association in the days when the First Judicial District also included Adams and Arapahoe
Counties, as well as Jefferson and several of the mountain counties.
Alex Keller, now President-elect of the Colorado Bar Association, described his association with Carl in the early 1950s to a meeting of the First Judicial District Bar Association, at a special meeting held to...
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