Brett Godfrey

Brett Godfrey has 30 years of trial experience, and an extensive medical, scientific and aerospace background. He is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell’s Peer Review Rating System (the highest ethics rating available for an attorney).

Community Service: Brett has served on the Board of Directors for the Denver Area Counsel of the Boy Scouts of America and has served on the Board of Directors of two drug-rehabilitation programs. He has volunteered his time and resources to fundraising activities for Habitat For Humanity, the Denver Children’s Home and several other charities involved in mental health, drug-abuse prevention and protection of women from violence.

Jury trial experience: Mr. Godfrey has served as lead counsel in more than 95 jury trials throughout the United States.

Appellate experience: Mr. Godfrey has served as lead appellate counsel in a large number of cases, establishing new law in State and Federal court. Click to see a list of Mr. Godfrey’s published appellate cases.

International legal experience: Mr. Godfrey has handled litigation in England, Scotland, South Africa, China, the Seychelles Islands, Canada and Mexico, including supervision of local counsel in those countries and coordination of high-stakes multi-national litigation.

Engineering experience: Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Godfrey worked as a chemical engineer for a subsidiary of the Williams Companies, designing the entire control system for an advanced chemical processing facility in Wyoming, pioneering the successful use of new technologies employing sophisticated ceramic and titanium flow components and automated control technologies, designing new hardware components and writing the software to control most of the plant. Earlier in his engineering career, Mr. Godfrey worked in research and development laboratories at DeSoto, Inc., a chemical coating manufacturer, and Environecs, Inc., a maker of computerized industrial pollution control equipment.

In the context of his work as both an attorney and an engineer, Mr. Godfrey is experienced in design and development of preventive measures relating to product liability and plant safety. He has designed protective devices and warning labels, written instruction manuals for experimental new equipment, written safety procedures and performed human factors analysis of human error. These professional experiences afford Mr. Godfrey unique knowledge and background which is priceless in the context of litigating high-technology disputes, such as product liability and patent cases.

Business law background: Brett has litigated a large number of high-stakes business disputes involving licensing rights, intellectual property claims, royalty disputes, unfair trade practices, price discrimination claims, accounting disputes, sales contract disputes, franchise agreement disputes and other corporate litigation, including civil RICO (Racketeering) and multi-district litigation.

Military & aviation experience: Mr. Godfrey is a former Air Force officer, with substantial experience in aviation law. He is also a pilot with multiengine and instrument ratings.  He has successfully and safely handled serious in-flight emergencies, including engine failures, without damage to persons or property. As an aside, Mr. Godfrey has logged over 2,000 skydives and was a competitive parachute jumper for 5 years.

Unique highlights: Mr. Godfrey’s experience includes:

• Successfully defended hospitals and doctors.
• Successfully represented public entities and taxpayers.
• Was the first attorney in the world to successfully enforce an American subpoena on South African soil.

Publications: Mr. Godfrey has authored numerous published articles in various legal textbooks and periodicals, including the Colorado Lawyer, Trial Talk, Inside The Minds, Flying Magazine, Colorado Law Week and others. Mr. Godfrey’s various treatises have been used in the insurance industry as training materials for more than 20 years, and his seminar articles have been published in national publications, including his AAJ (ATLA) annual convention book submissions. Mr Godfrey is experienced in natural resources law, and assisted Professor John Lowe in the research and writing for the Second Edition Nutshell on Oil and Gas Law. He also edited the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Newsletter for one year in 1986.

Hobbies:Brett loves painting and writing. He also studies philosophy, comparative religion and physics.

Favorite saying: “Law is nothing more than man’s attempt to codify the principles of decency—decency is what your grandmother taught you.”