CAREERS
Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell hires associates with good academic records and innate ability who want to go to trial – as soon and as often as possible. Then, we train these associates to become highly skilled advocates and essential members of this firm and their chosen profession.
At WTO, the primary component of our professional development program is hands-on experience. During your first few years of practice, you will be expected to:
- Take and defend depositions
- Examine witnesses at trial
- Represent clients in arbitration and mediation proceedings
- Draft motions and argue them in court
- Meet with corporate counsel clients from Fortune 500 companies to help develop effective litigation strategies
At each stage of your progression through the range of trial skills and experience, you will be carefully mentored because we want you to succeed. Our high partner-to-associate ratio means that you will benefit from working closely with a "trial-tested" senior attorney in virtually all of your cases.
You also will be mentored by an associate who has been with the firm for a while, who will help you with the day-to-day aspects of associate life.
When you arrive at WTO, you will receive a basic administrative orientation and you will be trained on the firm's hardware, software, and electronic systems for both on-site and remote access. WTO attorneys spend time on the road, and are therefore supplied with laptops and BlackBerries. You also will be shown how to navigate essential legal applications like ProLaw, Summation, WorkSite, and Trial Director.
You will participate in WTO's formal associate training program which includes workshops with the firm's senior partners and trial presentation consultants regarding:
- Legal ethics and professionalism
- Working and communicating effectively with partners, clients, other counsel, and the courts
- Effective legal writing
- Practice development
- Case strategy
- Depositions
- Voir dire
- Opening statement
- Expert witnesses
- Direct and cross examination
- Motions practice
- Closing argument
Throughout the year, the firm also offers presentations by invited speakers on a range of topics important to our practice and our profession. All WTO attorneys are invited to attend. A sample of subjects covered in the past includes:
- History of judicial independence, presented by a Colorado Supreme Court justice
- Best practices for working with digital evidence, presented by a computer forensics firm
- Accounting for lawyers, presented by an accountant
- Selecting and working with expert witnesses, presented by an expert witness
- Using computer animations and graphic exhibits at trial, presented by a leading national trial consulting firm
- Setting up and attacking damage allegations in commercial and trade secret cases, presented by an economic analyst
All associates also are encouraged to take advantage of our "discussion with a partner" series, in which individual WTO partners informally share their own ideas about trial practice and career development. These partners are highly qualified as trial attorneys and as instructors, and include in their number Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, National Institute for Trial Advocacy faculty, and current and former law school professors.
Each fall, you will join your lawyer colleagues for a weekend retreat that features the annual "state of the firm" address, in which firm chairman Mike O'Donnell and managing partner Hugh Gottschalk share important financial and growth information with all lawyers. We do this because we want you to understand the "business" context within which our firm operates. The retreat also includes an educational and social agenda for you and your guest.
To help you maximize your personal presentation and courtroom advocacy skills, WTO retains and makes available to all attorneys intensive, one-on-one coaching provided by Courtroom Performance, Inc., a nationally-recognized trial consulting firm. WTO encourages its associates to make frequent use of Courtroom Performance's expertise.
Each WTO attorney receives an annual budget that can be used for outside professional development expenses. The firm strongly encourages each associate to attend the highly regarded two-week trial practice course offered by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
The firm pays for the cost of preparing for and taking the Colorado bar exam, and for membership in the Denver Bar Assocation, Colorado Bar Association, and the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association – all of which offer valuable professional development programs.
In summary, our professional development program – from orientation through partnership – is intended to provide you with every opportunity to transform your intelligence and innate talent into a focused end result – a highly skilled and professionally satisfied trial attorney.
For more information about WTO's professional development program, contact Carolyn Fairless, Recruiting Committee Chair and Partner.