Signage inside La Loma McGregor Square on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
Late on Monday afternoon, a judge ordered teams of lawyers to his courtroom, spent five minutes castigating them for their — and their clients’ — unprofessional behavior over the past month, and then ordered them out before they could respond to his scoldings.
“Lawyers are officers of the court and should act as buffers, not enablers, of their clients’ emotional and instinctive desires to slander the opposing party, or parties,” said Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones, who was a civil litigator at Holland & Hart before becoming a judge in 2011.
Jones was speaking to attorneys from the firms Ireland Stapleton and Womble Bond Dickinson who represent William and Renee Brinkerhoff. The couple’s recent divorce has led to a business divorce — a division of their six restaurants, which include La Loma and Sierra — and a contentious civil case, which is set to be decided by Denver jurors in June and July.
Mudslinging in that case has reached new heights in recent weeks as William and Renee’s four adult children have taken sides — each have one son and one daughter in their corner — and filed accusatory, highly personal affidavits about the parent they are estranged from.
The acrimonious affidavits, which are mostly unrelated to the business dispute over ownership shares between William and Renee Brinkerhoff, have frustrated Jones. So, he let the attorneys know.
Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones, seen here at a 2020 hearing at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“Lawyers should not allow themselves to serve as mouthpieces for attempts at retribution,” he said. “Disappointingly, that is exactly what I have seen from the lawyers’ behavior over the last several weeks with the filings that I have reviewed. This court will not act as a conduit for such behavior. You want to slander each other? Do it outside of the litigation privilege!”
Litigation privilege shields lawyers and their clients from defamation claims when their words are connected to litigation. Jones warned that some of what has been said recently in the Brinkerhoff case may fall outside of that privilege, opening the door to defamation claims.
The judge ruled that affidavits in the case will be suppressed, keeping them out of public view, while lawyers for William and Renee determine what, if anything, within them is relevant to the case. He said the couple’s children’s remarks are “largely, if not entirely” irrelevant.
“This is going to end and it is going to end now,” Jones told the eight lawyers in attendance.
William Brinkerhoff’s legal team is led by Kelley Duke, managing partner at Ireland Stapleton. It also includes two other lawyers from that firm.
Renee Brinkerhoff’s legal team is led by Kris Kostolansky in the Denver office of Womble Bond Dickinson, an international firm. It also includes four other lawyers from that firm.
Duke and Kostolansky both declined to comment on the judge’s remarks this week.
“Counsel is on notice,” Jones said to conclude Monday’s hearing. “Any further personalized attacks by their respective clients by way of pleadings will result in sanctions, not only on the client who engages in such attacks but also on the lawyers who file on their behalf.”
With that, he declared court was in recess, stood up and walked out of his courtroom.
Signage inside La Loma McGregor Square on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
Late on Monday afternoon, a judge ordered teams of lawyers to his courtroom, spent five minutes castigating them for their — and their clients’ — unprofessional behavior over the past month, and then ordered them out before they could respond to his scoldings.
“Lawyers are officers of the court and should act as buffers, not enablers, of their clients’ emotional and instinctive desires to slander the opposing party, or parties,” said Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones, who was a civil litigator at Holland & Hart before becoming a judge in 2011.
Jones was speaking to attorneys from the firms Ireland Stapleton and Womble Bond Dickinson who represent William and Renee Brinkerhoff. The couple’s recent divorce has led to a business divorce — a division of their six restaurants, which include La Loma and Sierra — and a contentious civil case, which is set to be decided by Denver jurors in June and July.
Mudslinging in that case has reached new heights in recent weeks as William and Renee’s four adult children have taken sides — each have one son and one daughter in their corner — and filed accusatory, highly personal affidavits about the parent they are estranged from.
The acrimonious affidavits, which are mostly unrelated to the business dispute over ownership shares between William and Renee Brinkerhoff, have frustrated Jones. So, he let the attorneys know.
Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones, seen here at a 2020 hearing at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“Lawyers should not allow themselves to serve as mouthpieces for attempts at retribution,” he said. “Disappointingly, that is exactly what I have seen from the lawyers’ behavior over the last several weeks with the filings that I have reviewed. This court will not act as a conduit for such behavior. You want to slander each other? Do it outside of the litigation privilege!”
Litigation privilege shields lawyers and their clients from defamation claims when their words are connected to litigation. Jones warned that some of what has been said recently in the Brinkerhoff case may fall outside of that privilege, opening the door to defamation claims.
The judge ruled that affidavits in the case will be suppressed, keeping them out of public view, while lawyers for William and Renee determine what, if anything, within them is relevant to the case. He said the couple’s children’s remarks are “largely, if not entirely” irrelevant.
“This is going to end and it is going to end now,” Jones told the eight lawyers in attendance.
William Brinkerhoff’s legal team is led by Kelley Duke, managing partner at Ireland Stapleton. It also includes two other lawyers from that firm.
Renee Brinkerhoff’s legal team is led by Kris Kostolansky in the Denver office of Womble Bond Dickinson, an international firm. It also includes four other lawyers from that firm.
Duke and Kostolansky both declined to comment on the judge’s remarks this week.
“Counsel is on notice,” Jones said to conclude Monday’s hearing. “Any further personalized attacks by their respective clients by way of pleadings will result in sanctions, not only on the client who engages in such attacks but also on the lawyers who file on their behalf.”
With that, he declared court was in recess, stood up and walked out of his courtroom.
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