Holod, Doug

I have a B.A. and M.A. from the University of California Santa Barbara in Religious Studies. I have my J.D. from U.C.L.A. I have the A.V. top rating from Martindale Hubble and have been repeatedly selected by my peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers.

I was honored and humbled to recently receive the Anti-Defamation League's 2008 Civil Rights Award for my continuing work on civil rights.

Our civil rights are the most precious individual jewels of our legal civilization. They are constantly being assaulted and are always at risk. While these cases can be difficult, they are very rewarding. Occasionally we have had the privilege of seeing or at least hovering briefly near what Morris Dees (head of the Southern Poverty Law Center) calls, the "face of justice."

I have represented many people in individual cases. I have published articles on a number of subjects ranging from the Myth of Caps in nursing home litigation to disqualifying judges in Colorado civil cases. I am asked from time to time to lecture on nursing home litigation by the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. I also have been invited to speak on these subjects at national conventions, such as those sponsored by Mealey's. I have also spoken on many occasions and written about representing Guantanamo Bay detainees along with Anna and Erica.

I started practice as a student intern working for the Zuni Legal Aid Society in New Mexico while in law school at U.C.L.A. I received a three year Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship when I graduated.

I was assigned to the Denver Legal Aid Society where I stayed after my fellowship until 1979. During this time, I was fortunate to try many cases and to bring numerous major class action lawsuits. We challenged the way the government regulated nursing homes, which focused on paper compliance instead of the actual care delivered. We sued RTD to put lifts on buses so that people in wheelchairs could begin to have equal access to the state. We sued to expand the old age pension laws to pick up poor people starting at age 60 without a 35-year residency requirement, as had been the intent of the people of Colorado when the program was adopted during the Depression. We brought a number of other similar class actions. I became the Director of Litigation for Legal Aid and I began my own practice in 1979.

Redressing the scandalous continuing abuse and neglect of the elderly and disabled against nursing homes, assisted living facilities, personal care homes and hospitals, has been a career passion for me.