Clare Pennington
Associate
Clare focuses her practice on civil and commercial litigation,
and has a strong interest in appellate practice. Before
entering private practice, she served as judicial law clerk to
the Hon. Nancy E. Rice of the Colorado Supreme
Cour--where she gained valuable research and writing
experience as well as exposure to diverse areas of civil and
criminal law.
Clare ranked fourth in her graduating class at the University of
Colorado School of Law. In law school, she served as an
articles editor for the Colorado Journal of International
Environmental Law and Policy. She also won the Rothgerber
Moot Court competition. She holds dual undergraduate
degrees in political science and philosophy.
Clare is on the trial team for these cases:
Ingersoll-Rand/Trane, a world-wide manufacturer of heating
and cooling equipment, was defendant in a 1995 federal
lawsuit involving the termination of an agent, antitrust
allegations and related issues. This first trial (prior to Reilly
Pozner's involvement in the case) resulted in a judgment
against Trane for $18 million on wrongful termination claims
and dismissal of all of Trane's counterclaims. After a 2002
appellate mandate reversing and remanding the case for
re-trial, Reilly Pozner was hired to take over. In 2005, the firm
achieved not only the dismissal of all of plaintiffs' claims
against Trane, but also a $4.75 million judgment on Trane's
fraud counterclaim, as well as a substantial costs award. The
firm continues to represent Trane in the plaintiffs' appeal of
this decision. In light of this success, Trane retained Reilly
Pozner in another multi-state agent termination case in
Toledo. The firm secured the dismissal of all of the antitrust
counterclaims and defeated the agent's efforts to obtain a preliminary injunction preventing the termination in both the
trial court and the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The
litigation settled with terms very favorable to Trane.
Reilly Pozner has been approved by the Lehman Brothers
bankruptcy court to act as Lehman’s national coordinating
and lead trial counsel in prosecuting claims against mortgage
loan originators that sold Lehman defective loans. Clare is
part of the ten-lawyer team in this significant representatio--involving more than 100 cases in 26 states.
In 2004, a prominent Denver family sold its business to two private equity investment firms which intended to increase the value of the company and sell it at a profit. This "fix and flip" proved more difficult than the new owners anticipated. Nearly two years after the sale, they sought damages from the family based on facts known to the buyers at the time of closing and post-purchase decisions made by the buyers after a six-month period of due diligence. Through a highly contentious mediation process, Reilly Pozner, representing the family, demonstrated that the buyers' disappointment in their investment was not grounds to recover damages from the family. The matter ultimately concluded in a settlement extremely favorable to our clients.
"I like the fact that Reilly Pozner represents both plaintiffs and
defendants. It keeps things interesting. Since we wear both
hats, we are better able to anticipate and plan for arguments
on both sides of a case. If we are representing plaintiffs, we
can pretty well anticipate how the defendants are going to
argue--and vice versa."
