Emily Swanson is a partner of the firm and has extensive experience litigating and defending cases involving serious injury, death, product liability, premises liability, subrogation, employer liability, first and third-party bad-faith, professional liability, and workers’ compensation. She specializes in cases where liability or injury causation are highly contested, and she has significant experience with brain and spine injuries.
Emily litigates and will try cases in all Colorado counties. As an example, in 2018, Emily tried a case in Durango, Colorado (La Plata County) involving a young mother who fell into a concrete pit at a commercial restaurant, suffering catastrophic brain injuries requiring her to be air flighted to Denver for immediate care. Emily and her partner Scott Lasater tried the case over two weeks obtaining a defense verdict for their client, the property owner.
Consistently recognized throughout the legal profession for her fearless advocacy, creative strategy and honest representation, Emily was nominated by her peers as Colorado’s 2018 Top Insurance Defense Attorney, and selected by Law Week Colorado as one of six Top Female Attorneys in Colorado for 2018. She is a Super Lawyers Rising Star, and was nominated and selected by her peers to the “Best Lawyers in America” list for Insurance Law. She has also been named as a Top 40 Under 40 Attorney in Colorado numerous times. In 2018, she was a finalist for the Denver Bar Association’s “Gary McPherson Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award”.
Work History
After law school, Emily worked at a firm specializing in litigating fair housing complaints, contract/damages disputes and real estate matters. After a highly publicized trial in Adams County, Emily was recruited by a plaintiff’s firm, where she litigated personal injury and bad-faith cases. Emily then moved to an insurance defense firm where she defended personal injury cases, bad-faith claims, and workers’ compensation cases. At Lasater & Martin, Emily represents Fortune 500 companies and large insurance carriers in civil litigation matters.
Education
- Juris Doctor: University of Denver
- B.S.: University of Houston
NCAA Division I athlete
Summa Cum Laude
Bar Admission
- Colorado, North Dakota (Inactive)
- U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
Professional Associations
- Colorado Bar Association
- Colorado Defense Lawyers’ Association
- American Society of Legal Advocates
- DRI
- CLM
Presentations
- Workers’ Compensation & Collateral Source, Colorado Defense Lawyers Association Annual Conference, Telluride, Colorado, 2018
- Surviving the Silence: How to Deal with the After Effects of Abuse, AVCA Annual Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2018
- Employee Misclassification in Youth Sports Organizations, Denver, Colorado, 2016
- Surviving Insurance Bad-Faith Depositions, 2016
- Employee Misclassification and Why You Should Care, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2016
- Surviving in Today’s Litigious Society: Pro-Active Legal Advice for Youth Sports Organizations, AVCA Annual Conference, Columbus, Ohio, 2016
Awards/Distinctions
- 2024 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2024 Best Lawyers in America, Insurance Law
- 2023 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2023 Best Lawyers in America, Insurance Law
- 2022 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2022 Best Lawyers in America, Insurance Law
- 2022 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2021 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2021 Best Lawyers in America, Insurance La
- 2020 Super Lawyers Rising Star
- 2020 Best Lawyers in America, Insurance Law
- 2018 Barrister’s Best Top Insurance Defense Attorney in Colorado, Law Week Colorado
- 2018 Top Female Attorneys in Colorado, Law Week Colorado
- 2019 Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys in Colorado, American Society of Legal Advocates
- 2018 Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys in Colorado, American Society of Legal Advocates
- 2017 Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys in Colorado, American Society of Legal Advocates
Articles
- Youth Sports Organizations: An Emerging and Alarming Trend, Law Week Colorado
- Alleged Abuse Victims of Volleyball Coach Receiving Support, Chicago Sun
- Michigan State University Maintained Ties with a Volleyball Coach Accused of Sexual Abuse, TIME
- Michigan State kept ties to Aurora volleyball coach accused of sexual abuse, Chicago Tribune
- Six Named Law Week’s Top Women Lawyers, Law Week Colorado
- Law Week Colorado 2018 Top Women, Circuit Media
- Barrister’s Best 2018, Law Week Colorado
Other
- Member, Board of Directors, Rocky Mountain Region of USA Volleyball, 2015 – Present
- Member, Board of Advisors for non-profit Hope, Connection & Community
Representative Experience
- In 2022, tried a Premises Liability case for the third largest retailer in the world, resulting in the jury returning a defense verdict in less than 20-minutes.
- In 2023, obtained six walk-away agreements resulting in the client paying nothing, two summary judgment motions granted in favor of clients, and three motions to dismiss where the client was fully dismissed from the case.
- Tried over 35 cases to verdict, including litigation of Colorado cases in 17 different counties.
- Obtained precedent-setting trial court orders on workers’ compensation collateral source issues that helped shape the law in Colorado and substantially benefited the defense bar across the state.
- Crafted a precedent-setting damages argument that resulted in over a quarter-million-dollar reduction in the damages a plaintiff would have been allowed to claim, when initially more than 1.5 million was demanded by plaintiff, allowing for a nuisance-value settlement.
- Obtained a defense verdict in a legitimate brain injury case in La Plata County where plaintiff demanded over $2 million at trial.
- In a case with multiple defendants, initial research into parties resulted in a walk-away agreement prior to the Answer deadline, based on establishing the conduct allegedly involving my client could not have occurred during the applicable statute of limitations.
- Represented various international clients, which included knowledge of EU laws and regulations regarding traditional American discovery disputes, including traveling to Europe to conduct international discovery and massive document review projects.
- Taken or defended over 300 depositions of fact witnesses, parties, or experts.
- Successfully briefed and defended against numerous attempts to allow for punitive damages.
