Ryan T. Shaffer

Ryan, a creative and talented litigator, devises customized strategies to help clients achieve their goals through litigation.

Ryan considers each case a unique challenge and carefully analyzes the facts and circumstances to identify tactics and arguments no one else would imagine. A novelist and game designer in his spare time, he weaves nuanced, clear, and compelling stories that resonate with judges and juries alike.

He manages all aspects of commercial litigation, from initial case assessment through case administration, discovery, and resolution via arbitration, mediation, written motions, or trial. His experience includes cases involving real estate, including disputes between commercial, residential, and mobile home landlords and tenants and between homeowners’ associations and their members; disputes involving land ownership, adverse possession, and easements; zoning and permitting matters; civil rights investigations and litigation; foreclosures; and bankruptcy. He is also highly experienced in matters relating to wireless telecommunications and federal statutory and regulatory law controlling same; litigation relating to wills, trusts, and estates; state regulatory and licensing litigation; construction and accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act; banking and commercial lending; commercial contract disputes; internal investigations and corporate risk management; and personal injury and other tort claims. He also drafts and negotiates a wide range of business contracts and settlement agreements.

• Obtained summary judgment fully affirming validity of clients’ acquisition of million-dollar mountain estate in the face of complex trust and adverse possession claims brought by occupant of property.
• Negotiated settlement of multimillion-dollar claim to overturn client’s mother’s will shortly prior to trial with highly favorable result for client.
• Appeared on many occasions before local land use bodies to successfully present clients’ applications for new commercial and residential developments and legal changes in support of same, and successfully appealed adverse decisions in court based on such presentations.
• Negotiated resolutions to numerous property disputes with landlords of telecommunications company client, which led to multidecade extensions of the client’s leases on friendly terms.
• Defended medical laboratory client against multimillion-dollar Medicaid reimbursement claim by the State of Colorado and negotiated a favorable settlement for client and offered client strategic feedback to avoid further legal risk.
• Successfully obtained relief from automatic stay in a virtual hearing in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, which allowed client, a nonprofit community development fund, to protect its security interest in a million-dollar property.
• Jointly defended client at trial against a complex personal injury claim with a highly sympathetic plaintiff. As a direct result of trial advocacy, negotiated a settlement that saved the client nearly $1 million.