Mary Kay has spent her 20+ year non-traditional legal career learning the ins and outs of all three branches of government, from the municipal to the federal level. As such, her approach to serving her clients is based on navigating the various rules, nuances, and roles of the governmental body that is critical to achieving a particular client’s goals, particularly when those goals intersect multiple branches of government.
Mary Kay began her political career in the Legislative branch, interning for Congressman Dan Schaefer (R- 6th CD CO), then had the privilege of working for U.S. Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO), Representative Mo Udall (D-AZ), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Republican caucus of the Arizona State Senate during college. These early experiences working for lawmakers from different parties taught her the nuts and bolts of the legislative process at the state and federal level, but also how to communicate effectively with members of both major parties, a skill and value that has transcended her approach to lobbying over the past two decades.
During law school at the University of Denver, she focused on learning about municipal government as a clerk for the Colorado Municipal League, and later went on to represent interests from other local government organizations, including school districts, counties and special districts. Before becoming a lobbyist, she worked as a nonpartisan attorney in the Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services, where she counseled Colorado legislators as member of the tax and finance team.
With respect to the Judicial branch of government, Mary Kay served as a law clerk to Judge Gaspar Perricone (1st JD, Colorado), and has represented the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado District Attorneys Council. She maintains a strong working relationship with specialists in many sections of the Colorado Bar and the Attorney General’s Office.
Her work in the Executive branch included a four-year stint as a senior staff member for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. During this time as the Governor’s Legislative Director, Mary Kay helped shepherd over fifty legislative agenda items through the process for the Governor. She oversaw the approval of all nineteen executive agencies’ legislative agendas for four legislative sessions, and worked closely with cabinet members and executive agency senior staff. She now represents the interests of her clients in front of various Governors Offices throughout the United States.
These opportunities have given Mary Kay the ability to forge long-lasting professional relationships with elected officials, legislative, agency and judicial branch staff, and other lobbyists. These relationships, as much as a working knowledge of the process and its history, are pivotal to opening the right doors for clients.
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