Marte B. Timmers

Marte is a strategic and zealous advocate and seasoned trusted advisor who focuses on helping clients preserve their wealth and their family’s well-being by reaching resolutions in the most complex family law cases.

For more than 20 years, Marte has been helping high-net worth families navigate the financial and psychological challenges that arise when a divorce or separation is on the horizon. Concentrating on cases with $5+ million in assets, she has successfully resolved multiple cases with more than $100 million in assets. She understands the complexities of high-net worth cases involving trusts, closely held businesses, venture capital and private equity investments, complex income and tax implications, and the unique challenges in the higher net worth space.

She is well versed in high-conflict business and financial disputes as well as parenting issues, including relocation cases, parental gatekeeping/alienation, substance use disorders/testing needs, navigating best protocols for children with unique needs, and families experiencing mental health challenges. She understands the overwhelming effect that mental health issues can have on families and is knowledgeable about the support available to families with these issues. Marte also assists clients in drafting and reviewing marital agreements and cohabitation agreements, including successfully defending against and litigating challenges to such agreements.

Earlier in her career, she served as a judicial clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and as a magistrate judge in the Denver Juvenile Court. As a former magistrate judge, Marte is astute at anticipating both sides of a case and in predicting likely outcomes for cases that are decided under principles of equity. This ability to see all sides of a case gives her a leg up in effectively advocating for her clients in court and in assessing each case for settlement purposes.
Marte is an excellent listener who is deeply committed to helping her clients reach resolutions that reflect their goals and values. She understands that out-of-court settlements provide clients with more certainty, creativity, and flexibility than court-decreed orders. While skilled in all aspects of litigation, she is also formally trained in collaborative law and is able to help parting spouses resolve matters amicably, avoiding costly and contentious litigation.

Clients appreciate Marte’s compassion, breadth of knowledge and experience with the experts, problem solvers, and neutrals in the family law arena (in and out of Colorado), and sensitivity in handling family matters. She is a proactive and strategic advocate for her clients and their family’s best interests.

• Co-chaired a trial with a $40 million dollar business valuation dispute with complicated valuation issues in the oil and gas industry.
• Successfully litigated a relocation case for a client in which a child was relocated to North Carolina.
• Successfully litigated challenges to premarital agreements.
• Litigated successfully protection orders, emergency parenting time cases, and child support cases.
• Experienced in the use of parental responsibilities evaluators, child family investigators, vocational evaluators, and business/tax valuation expert witnesses.
• Argued at the appellate level in a high-income child support case.
• Successfully handled an extended family member adoption in Denver Juvenile Court.
• Has trial experience in all metro area districts, as well as outlying districts (El Paso and Weld) and mountain districts that include Garfield, Pitkin, Eagle, and Montrose districts.

Presentations

• “Ethics and the Difficult Client: Clients who do Bad Things: Lying, Stealing and Cheating Clients,” AAML Advanced Family Law Institute, December 2019
• “A Roadmap for an Effective Use of a Parental Responsibilities Evaluation,” Colorado Bar Associate Family Law Institute, August 2019
• “Legal Separation: Can One be a Little Bit Married,” Colorado Domestic Relations Judicial Institute, June 2017
• “Where Family Law Intersects with Immigration Law: Practical Steps for Protecting the Children of Immigrants Facing Deportation,” Colorado Bar Association, May 2017
• “How to Effectively and Persuasively Present Business Valuations to the Trier of Fact,” Colorado Bar Association Family Law Institute, August 2017

Publications

• “Reclaim The Name – Simplified Name Change After Divorce,” Family Law Section Newsletter, November 2016