Surrounded by Lawyers at the ACE Scholarships Luncheon

Katie and Fred Yarger with Anna Edgar at the ACE Scholarships Luncheon.

Barefoot on the Town was thrilled be a guest of MRDLaw at the ACE Scholarships Spring Luncheon on Tuesday at the Colorado Convention Center Hyatt. ACE provides tuition scholarships to low-income families so their children may attend any Denver-area school.

Nearly 2,000 people attended Tuesday’s event featuring keynote speaker Jeb Bush. The younger Bush brother is known for his support of education reform in Florida, and across the country.

Joining us for lunch were a slew of lawyers – both from private practice and government. We were thrilled to meet Fred Yarger and Katie Crawford Yarger. He works for the Attorney General’s Office and she for Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell. The lawyerly couple were very interested to learn more about ACE, and felt strongly about access to quality education for all.

Emma and Jonathan Keyser, Jennifer Stocker, Mike Davis and Brad Benson pose for a picture at the MRDLaw table.

Also at the MRDLaw table were Brad Benson from Goodspeed Merrill & Benson, Anna Edgar  and Jonathan Keyser from Hogan Lovells, Emma Keyser with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and Jennifer Stocker from Adobe Systems. As if there weren’t enough lawyers at one table, sitting just across the aisle from us were David Blake, the Deputy Attorney General for Policy and Government Affairs, and Mark Champoux from Davis Graham & Stubbs. The pair were seated with House Speaker Frank McNulty.

And we cannot forget our table host, Mike Davis the founder of MRDLaw. You may remember our last post about Mike shortly after he branched out on his own. His client portfolio continues to grow, as does his commitment to community. Mike has pledged to donate at least three percent of his collected fees back to community and nonprofit organizations, like ACE. The independent thinking lawyer has been involved with ACE for about four years, and joined because he is passionate about the issue of school choice. Mike currently sits on the organization’s Board of Advisors. Growing up the son of two public school teachers who taught in largely low-income, inner-city schools, Mike saw first-hand the difference quality education makes in student success. Now, through ACE, he advocates for every parent to have the same choice that his own parents had in sending their kids to the school that best suited each child. Mike firmly believes school choice is one of the most important civil rights we have.

ACE is helping to provide choice for parents in Metro Denver. Since its founding in 2000, the organization has provided more than 9,000 scholarships to children across the metro area. And, they have recruited a hugely loyal following. To learn more about ACE, visit their website at www.acescholarships.org.