Contact:

printable pdf bio

Practice Areas:

  • ________________________

Clerkships:

  • Chief Justice Mary J. Mullarkey, Colorado Supreme Court
  • Staff Attorney, Fifth Jud. Dist. of Colo.
  • ________________________

Education:

  • J.D., Univ. of Denver College of Law
  • Top fifth percentile
  • Editor-in-Chief, The Denver University Law Review
  • B.A., University of Colorado
  • ________________________

Bar and Court Admissions:

U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

  • U.S. Court of Appeals,Tenth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
  • State of Colorado
  • Pro Hac Vice: California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia
  • ________________________

Presentations and Articles:

  • "Changing Horses: The Efficient Transition to New/Additional Counsel During Litigation,"Clifton Gunderson's General Counsel Forum, 2007
  • "The Corporation in Litigation: Developing the Allure of David Using the Strength of Goliath," Clifton Gunderson's General Counsel Forum, 2007
  • "The Expert Witness: Preparation, Presentation and Perils," Litigation Conference for Attorneys & CPA's, co-sponsored by the Colorado Bar Association and Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants, 2006
  • Antidegradation: Lost Cause or the Next Cause, which was published in the Water Law Review, Vol. 2 (1999),  First Place, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Natural Resources Writing Competition

Kent Modesitt

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. Kent Modesitt is a partner with the firm.

Kent focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation - including cases involving injunctive practice, intellectual property, legal malpractice, trade secret misappropriation, franchise/agency relationships and antitrust law. Kent served as senior case manager in a number of cases, including:

 

  • 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.
  • When AIG Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company noticed that its financial advisers (and their contact databases) were being aggressively recruited by the competition in what looked like a coordinated campaign, VALIC retained Reilly Pozner as national counsel to protect its trade secrets and enforce its non-competition agreements in 20 cases in courts around the country. Due to the firm's skillful use of temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, VALIC has achieved some settlements and has seen a significant decrease in unfair competition by its former employees and a significant decrease in competitor recruitment. Kent is serving as senior case manager for a number of these actions in California, Florida, Minnesota and Texas.
  • 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.  Kent is part of the the ten-lawyer team in this significant representation – involving more than 100 cases in 26 states.

    • Before entering private practice, Kent served as law clerk to Chief Justice Mary J. Mullarkey of the Colorado Supreme Court and as a staff attorney in the Fifth Judicial District of Colorado. In these clerkships, he gained valuable experience in both the appellate and trial arenas, as well as exposure to diverse areas of civil and criminal law.

    Kent has spoken to lawyers and accountants on topics like the use of expert witnesses, demonstrative evidence, transition to new counsel during litigation, and the humanization of corporations to juries in litigation.

     

    Quote

    "In 1993, my brother and I completed a three-month, 2,400-mile canoe trip from Fort Collins, Colorado, to New Orleans - along the flood-swollen South Platte, Missouri and Mississippi rivers. If anyone else has accomplished this feat since frontier days, it's not in the record books. In pursuing life on the river - and litigation -- it is important to think big, be persistent, be creative, work hard - and focus on the life-changing relationships that are created."