Robert E. Mclean
| Publication year | 1990 |
| Pages | 1280 |
| Citation | Vol. 19 No. 7 Pg. 1280 |
1990, July, Pg. 1280. ROBERT E. McLEAN
Richard D. Greene, former District Court Judge, practices law with the firm of Banta, Hoyt, Greene & Everall, P.C.
Judge Robert E. McLean was an outstanding, consummate, colorful trial lawyer. Along with a handful of others, he dominated the plaintiffs' trial lawyer bar for the better part of two decades. He was appointed a District Court Judge in and for the City and County of Denver in 1970 and served with distinction until his death in 1976.
Bob was born September 15, 1918, in Fillmore, California. McLean became a Sergeant Major in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Robert G. Hoghaug, Denver attorney and former Denver Assistant City Attorney, first met Bob in 1941 at Fort Ord, California. Hoghaug considers Bob a legitimate war hero in that he gave his country over five years of real service, above and beyond the call of duty. "In the course of the past sixty years plus, I can't think of anyone I am more enthusiastic about than Bob McLean," Hoghaug said.
After his military service, Bob attended Southwestern University in Los Angeles and received his LL.B. in 1949. He was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1951 and went to work for the Denver office of the MacMillen Claim Service. Soon after that, Bob met Norm Kripke who was practicing plaintiff's personal injury law. Norm vividly remembers that when he met Bob in the process of negotiating a claim, Norm discovered that Bob's real love was toward the claimant's cause and not the defense thereof. It wasn't long after that, in 1953, that Norm Kripke and Bob became partners, a partnership which lasted until 1958.
Bob became a vigorous advocate of claimants' rights and limited his practice to personal injury matters. In 1953, he, Norm Kripke and the late Judge Omar Garwood formed an organization which they called the Association of Colorado Claimants Attorneys. They worked closely with the National Association of Claimants Counsel of America. Bob served as the Colorado association's first vice-president and second president (1955-1956). Later, the association changed its name to the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association; the national association became known as the American Trial Lawyers Associaton.
In 1959, Bob married Marjorie Wore-land, also a lawyer...
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