Blum '71 and Rathod '07 Receive Colorado Bar Association Awards

December 7, 2009

Two of Colorado Law alumnus recently received notable awards.

Gary Blum ’71, a Director and Shareholder at Silver & DeBoskey, received the Colorado Bar Association’s (CBA) 2009 Don W. Sears Ethics Award in November. The Sears Award was established in 2001 to recognize outstanding commitment to the ethics of the legal profession and is presented by the Ethics Committee. Blum is a member of the Ethics Committee and a past Chairperson and is on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Blum was also recently recognized by the Public Justice Foundation as a recipient for its 2009 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, which is bestowed on the trial lawyers or legal teams who made the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. Blum was one of the lawyers recognized for Cook w. Rockwell International Corp., holding the operators of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant accountable for persistent radioactive contamination from the Denver area facility.

Siddhartha Rathod ’07 of the Colorado Public Defender’s Office, received the 2009 Gary McPherson Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. The award is given annually in December by the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) to a young lawyer who is a member of the CBA and has shown outstanding commitment to professional success, community service, civic participation and inspiring others to participate in community service.

Rathod, a deputy state public defender at the Office of the Colorado Public Defender, volunteers with several programs that encourage underprivileged students to stay in school and explore higher education opportunities in the legal community. He volunteers as a camp counselor at the Colorado Heritage Camps’ East Indian Heritage Camp, for children adopted from India into American families. He also serves on the boards for the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Family Tree, Inc.