The companies we keep.

• Author: Schwab, Robert

WHAT! ME BICKER?

Charlie Fote, the pull-no-punches chairman and chief executive officer of First Data Corp., Colorado's most valuable company, flashed a bit of impatience last month when he was asked about the state's recent spate of losing corporate headquarters to mergers and consolidations.

Fote was the keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the Denver chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth and the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. Mostly, he talked about the growth of First Data, his financial-services company that includes Western Union.

But when asked about the corporate-headquarters issue, Fote said he had recently been to a meeting of various high-dollar Colorado CEOs and came away with the impression that some business leaders don't want new companies coming to Colorado because the new guys haven't suffered through enough hard times--like now--to earn the privilege.

Besides, Fote said, what national-level CEO would want to locate his company in a state where, if sued, he could face a Jefferson County jury to decide his financial fate?

Everybody at the luncheon laughed. But frankly, I didn't know what he was talking about. So I asked some of the people around my table.

One, a lawyer, said juries not only in Jefferson County but also in Denver and most other Colorado jurisdictions, are known in legal and business circles for a lack of sophistication when it comes to complicated business issues. A couple of jurisdictions--Denver and Boulder--are known for their hostility to business. That unfriendly legal atmosphere discourages businesses from relocating to the state. But the legislature won't fund the courts well enough--who has the money?--to try to make improvements.

For an explanation of Fote's other remark, I knew who to call: Tom Clark, the newly renamed vice president for economic...