Iris Eytan

Partner

At Reilly Pozner LLP, we are creative team players -- on both offense and defense. We proudly represent both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil and criminal litigation in courts around the country. Iris Eytan is a partner with the firm.

Iris focuses her practice on high-profile criminal defense litigation, with a special emphasis on cases that involve homicide, assault, sexual offenses and mental health issues. In 2008, she handled criminal cases in half of all Colorado's judicial districts.

Iris is listed as a "Top 100 Trial Lawyer" by the highly selective American Trial Lawyers Association and a "2008 Top Woman Lawyer" by Law Week Colorado. Three times, she has been voted a "Colorado Super Lawyer."

Prior to joining the firm, Iris was a Deputy State Public Defender and a senior attorney for the Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People. She also was a lawyer with the Disability Rights Advocates firm in San Francisco. Prior to attending law school, she worked in a variety of mental health facilities -- an experience that sensitized her to the unique legal issues faced by those with mental health issues and motivated her to attend law school to pursue justice in their defense.

Due to her focus on sexual offenses and the criminalization of the mentally ill, Iris is often asked to consult with other attorneys, judges and experts on cases involving these issues. She lectures before the Colorado Judicial Conference and other groups of criminal defense lawyers, and she vigorously advocates at the Colorado State Legislature.

Because of the nature of criminal defense practice, Iris prefers to keep confidential the names of her clients. However, the following cases demonstrate how she continues to advocate for systemic change:

With seven other attorneys, Iris created a task force to defend individuals at the State Hospital in Pueblo who pled Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. For this role in 2004, she and her colleagues were awarded the Colorado Lawyers Committee "Community Contribution Award." She chairs the Committee's State Mental Health Task Force.

In the landmark Wyatt v. Stickney class action lawsuit, plaintiffs argued that the conditions in Alabama's mental health facilities were inhumane and that the patients lacked appropriate, individualized care. The 1972 rulings established minimum standards for providing treatment and habilitation in state mental health and mental retardation facilities. In 1995, the case proceeded to trial to enforce compliance with the consent decree. This lawsuit set standards of care that improved the lives of countless persons throughout the country. Iris participated in ultimate resolution of this case as trial counsel with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

In People v. Eugene Zuniga, the court in 2007 determined that Colorado failed to provide timely court-ordered competency hearings and evaluations for 81 county-jail inmates whose competency to stand trial was in question. As a special prosecutor for the case, Iris forced the State to properly fund the programs and facilities needed for those inmates to get proper care. Following this decision, she was appointed as special counsel to the court – reporting on the treatment of the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.

Iris Eytan was named to the group tasked with researching and rewriting Colorado's Competency Statute, HB 08-1392, which directs how and when mental incompetency is raised and evaluated. The bill became law in 2008. The group remains active, pursuing additional changes to the statute.

"When it comes to justice for the disadvantaged -- and especially for those charged with criminal offenses -- I have a no-nonsense attitude. Often, when I say that something is 'not fair,' my idealism is mistaken for naïveté. But I think it's naïve to give up on fairness and transparency when people's lives or rights are in the balance. Every time, I will fight for what's right."