Robert (bug) Bugdanowitz

• Publication year: 2010
• Pages: 33

39 Colo.Law. 33 Colorado Bar Journal 2010.

2010, July, Pg. 33. Robert (Bug) Bugdanowitz

The Colorado Lawyer
July 2010
Vol. 39, No. 7 [Page 33]

Five of the Greatest

Robert (Bug) Bugdanowitz

by Robert T. Hinds, Jr

About the Author

Robert T. Hinds, Jr. is a family law lawyer in Greenwood Village-bobhinds@rthinds.com.

Warwick Downing, when writing about an "outstanding lawyer in Colorado history,(fn1) asked the following questions:

What does it take for a Colorado lawyer to "[be] one of the greatest"? Fame? Money? Legal achievement that goes beyond the ordinary? Name recognition? Political power? Legal distinction of some kind?

Robert Bugdanowitz, known as "Bug" or "Bob," was a family law lawyer of great distinction His achievements go beyond the ordinary

Personal History

A native of Denver, Bob Bugdanowitz was born on May 28, 1922.(fn2) He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Denver (DU) and earned his law degree from DU College of Law. During World War II, Bob served in the U.S. Army Air Force.

He began practicing law in the Colorado Attorney General's Office. He worked in the Office of Price Stabilization. Before he began the private practice of law in 1952, he also served as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Bob was married in 1959. He and his wife Mildred had two daughters.

private practice, family law was considered mostly a bread-and-butter activity involving the less-respected members of the profession-where anything goes and everything bad is expected. This was a meat-and-potatoes, name-calling, winner-take-all era of practicing law.

The terms "dissolution" and "no fault" were unknown at that time. It was "divorce," and it was down and dirty. Colorado was a fault state. It was commonplace in the practice for attorneys to hire the services of private detectives to investigate clients and witnesses, and detectives made frequent appearances as witnesses in court. Adultery was displayed in vivid terms to the court, and emotional harm was part of the element of proof.

David M. Johnson, Colorado Bar Association (CBA) President during 2009-10, is a highly regarded family law attorney. In his November 2009 President's Message, he wrote:

The family law Bar of Colorado has a grand tradition of serving families well. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were many talented and dedicated lawyers who chose family law as their specialty at a time when family law was seen as the...