Chris Carrington (left) and Doug Richards. Submitted photo.
Two former government prosecutors with combined experience of 130 jury trials have launched a criminal and civil practice to handle cases they think are most likely to see the inside of a courtroom.
Doug Richards, 39, and Chris Carrington, 35, both started as prosecutors in separate district attorney’s offices. But they met as neighbors at a private firm, sharing a wall when Richards was subleasing space from Carrington’s last firm, Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher.
They now share a second-floor office at 1755 Blake St., which they opened under the Richards Carrington name in January.
Carrington said the business model is to work fewer cases with more money at stake and more strategy in play, guaranteeing a partner always will handle casework.
“The approach is to be more selective in the cases, to be more responsive to the clients,” Carrington said, in contrast to bigger shops where “the case starts with a partner at the top, but it ends up with a two-year associate.”
They also think trial experience is a big sell. Carrington said prosecutors are inclined to offer more favorable settlements knowing they would face an experienced trial attorney.
“If you have a reputation for going to trial and you’re very aggressive in your investigation, it will absolutely impact the settlement offer that you get from the other side,” he said.
Richards said, “The prosecutor knows we’re going to try the case and as we get closer to trial, the offer we’ve been looking for all along is made to the client.”
Carrington is working on about a dozen active litigation cases, he said. And Richards counts about 45 clients in his criminal practice.
Carrington, a civil defense attorney, was a prosecutor in Arapahoe and Douglas County before moving to private practice. He was most recently a partner at Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher in Denver.
Richards, a criminal defense attorney, started his career in the Harris County District Attorney’s office in Houston. He later took a position in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Texas before opening his own practice in Denver in 2010, which includes white collar criminal cases.
The firm has hired two of-counsel lawyers, former Colorado state public defender Todd Mair and Los Angeles-based attorney Steve Weisskopf.
Chris Carrington (left) and Doug Richards. Submitted photo.
Two former government prosecutors with combined experience of 130 jury trials have launched a criminal and civil practice to handle cases they think are most likely to see the inside of a courtroom.
Doug Richards, 39, and Chris Carrington, 35, both started as prosecutors in separate district attorney’s offices. But they met as neighbors at a private firm, sharing a wall when Richards was subleasing space from Carrington’s last firm, Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher.
They now share a second-floor office at 1755 Blake St., which they opened under the Richards Carrington name in January.
Carrington said the business model is to work fewer cases with more money at stake and more strategy in play, guaranteeing a partner always will handle casework.
“The approach is to be more selective in the cases, to be more responsive to the clients,” Carrington said, in contrast to bigger shops where “the case starts with a partner at the top, but it ends up with a two-year associate.”
They also think trial experience is a big sell. Carrington said prosecutors are inclined to offer more favorable settlements knowing they would face an experienced trial attorney.
“If you have a reputation for going to trial and you’re very aggressive in your investigation, it will absolutely impact the settlement offer that you get from the other side,” he said.
Richards said, “The prosecutor knows we’re going to try the case and as we get closer to trial, the offer we’ve been looking for all along is made to the client.”
Carrington is working on about a dozen active litigation cases, he said. And Richards counts about 45 clients in his criminal practice.
Carrington, a civil defense attorney, was a prosecutor in Arapahoe and Douglas County before moving to private practice. He was most recently a partner at Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher in Denver.
Richards, a criminal defense attorney, started his career in the Harris County District Attorney’s office in Houston. He later took a position in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Texas before opening his own practice in Denver in 2010, which includes white collar criminal cases.
The firm has hired two of-counsel lawyers, former Colorado state public defender Todd Mair and Los Angeles-based attorney Steve Weisskopf.
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