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Frederick B. Skillern Educational Background 1976 Juris Doctor University of Colorado School of Law 1973 B.A. Dartmouth College Professional Experience and Areas of Concentration Fred Skillern returned to the practice of law in 2003 after serving as a District Judge in Colorado’s Eighteenth Judicial District, sitting in Arapahoe County. As a judge, he presided over more than sixty criminal and civil jury trials. He joined Montgomery Little as a shareholder and director. Before taking office as a judge, Mr. Skillern was in private practice in Denver, specializing in real estate law and related litigation. He started his career as a criminal prosecutor, trying a wide range of felonies to a jury. He then practiced law with several leading Denver firms for twenty years, developing an interest in real estate law, until he was appointed to the bench in 2000. Mr. Skillern has handled and tried cases relating to contracts, lending and secured financing, real estate development, real estate title, boundary and access disputes, construction contracts and mechanic liens, title insurance claims and coverage questions, eminent domain, commercial leasing, broker commissions, corporate and partnership dissolutions, sales and warranty claims, investment fraud, and foreclosures. He represents clients in insurance coverage questions and title insurance claims. Fred's experience as a trial attorney, transactional attorney and as a judge adds special depth to the services he performs for clients. He has received the highest "av" rating from Martindale Hubbell since 1988, and has been selected each year since 2006 for recognition by Colorado Super Lawyers based on annual surveys of Colorado lawyers for pollster Law and Politics and Denver's 5280 Magazine. Mr Skillern is a popular speaker at continuing legal education seminars. He is the author and continuing editor of several chapters on law of real property, civil trial practice, and the Colorado court system in Krendl's Colorado Methods of Practice (Thomson-West, 2009), the leading treatise on Colorado law. He presented the annual case law update for the state's real estate lawyers at the Colorado Bar Association's Real Estate Symposium for ten straight years, and speaks regularly before trade groups and attorneys across the state. He has taught the course in Basic Real Estate at the University of Denver's Strum College of Law. Interested in reform of the Colorado statutes and rules relating to real estate, Fred has served on the Colorado Supreme Court's standing Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure since 1987, and was lead author for many rule changes that deal with attorney fee awards, the appointment of receivers, the foreclosure process, and other procedures applicable to real estate litigation. He is currently and ex-officio member of the governing Council of the Real Estate Section of the Colorado Bar Assocation, serving as liaison to the courts and the Supreme Court's Civil Rules Committee. He was elected in 2003 to serve a three-year rotation as an officer of the Real Estate Section, serving as Chairman in 2005-2006. In the course of his legislative work with Real Estate Section, he co-authored legislation that streamlined the process for achieving a release of spurious liens from real property, and worked closely with the bar association and various trade groups on statutory revisions dealing with foreclosures, common interest communities, adverse possession, and Colorado's version of the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities. Mr. Skillern also served as a member of the CBA Title Standards Committee from 1997 to 2007. Representative published cases:
In addition to his work for clients, Fred regularly serves as an expert witness in cases involving real estate titles, title insurance, legal malpractice, attorney fees, and conflicts of interest. See link for current C.R.C.P. 26 summary of publications and testimony as an expert witness. He regularly serves as a neutral third-party mediator and arbitrator in real estate cases. In 2009 Fred completed the 40-hour training program for mediators at Harvard Law School's Negotiation Institute, training under Prof. Frank Sander, Linda Singer and Michael Lewis.
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