Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity Committee - Kirstin Jahn and David Lichtenstein, Co-Chairs

The DEI Committee was formed in December of 2019, inspired by an FFA Forum event entitled “Multiculturalism and the Law.”  Discussions about promoting multiculturalism continued afterward at  luncheons with Chief Judge Brimmer and interested attendees from the event. The DEI Committee’s mission is to improve equity, diversity and inclusivity within the FFA as well as throughout the federal court bar of Colorado through education (CLE’s), outreach to its members, and its future members (law students).  

In the fall of 2020, the FFA opened its membership to law students.  In the fall of 2021, responding to a request from the DEI Committee’s first law student members, who were also members of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law’s (DU) Black Law Student Association (BLSA), the DEI Committee began facilitating tours of the U.S. District Court and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for diverse law student groups.  The BLSA federal court tour was organized by DU’s BLSA, the FFA and Chief Judge Brimmer and included presentations from the U.S. District Court Judges and local federal court practitioners.   It was tremendously successful and has been expanded to include a tour for Asian law student groups in the spring of 2022 and Latinx law student groups for the fall of 2022.  These tours introduce the law students to judges of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, the federal courtroom, and the court’s chambers and provide the students with a preview of the types of law practiced in federal court as well as the opportunities afforded to law students by other federal court practitioners and the federal courts.  

The DEI committee welcomes you to join us to expand, implement and improve opportunities for all federal practitioners in the Colorado federal courts.