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Our Offices

COLORADO OFFICE
- Headquarters

40 Inverness Drive East
Denver, CO 80112
Phone: 303.792.5595
Fax: 303.708.0527

WYOMING OFFICE
Phone: 307.527.7891
Fax: 307.527.7897

OHIO OFFICE
Phone: 513.852.5600
Fax: 513.852.5611

DALLAS OFFICE
Phone: 972.934.1313
Fax: 972.231.3983

ARIZONA OFFICE
Phone: 602.508.6040

News Briefs

The Fabulous Burg Brothers: Arapahoe County's
Largest Law Firm

The famous wrestling duo, the Fabulous Kangaroo Brothers, are alive and well, and practicing law in Arapahoe County under the names of Michael Burg and Peter Burg, brothers and partners in the law firm of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, P.C.

The Fabulous Kangaroo Brothers were a famous tag team of the 1950's and 60's. Peter and Mike, partners for 20 years, have dubbed themselves the Fabulous Kangaroo Brothers after trying their first case together last year. Mike, the senior in the partnership, says that he described the lawyer brothers as the Fabulous Kangaroos to opposing counsel in a case, and the two brothers have turned the moniker into a good laugh. "We're like the Kangaroos because one of us is always jumping in the ring and tagging off to the other one," Mike explains. When Mike's birthday rolled around a few months ago, Peter went online and found a photograph of the real Fabulous Kangaroo Brothers. He gave it to Mike for a birthday gift.

Peter and Mike are the "Burg" partners in a law firm that has evolved over the past 20 to 30 years. They decided that the name didn't need to contain two "Burgs," and both of them claim the "Burg" refers to them. Burg Simpson, as the firm is known, is the largest law firm in Arapahoe County. The "Simpson" in Burg Simpson is actually three Simpsons: former United States Senator Alan Simpson, and his two sons, Bill and Colin Simpson. The Simpsons practice primarily out of the Burg Simpson office in Cody, Wyoming. Alan Simpson is a former United States Senator from Wyoming. There is more about how the Burg/Simpson relationship started later in this article.

The firm is active in ACBA activities, with Peter serving as a Committee Co-Chair and a member of the ACBA Board of Directors. At a recent Young Lawyers Committee event, most of the young lawyers attending were from Burg Simpson, since Peter and another Burg Simpson attorney, David Teselle, are the Co-Chairs of the ACBA Young Lawyers Committee. Burg Simpson is considered a regional firm, with work in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona and Texas. The firm has 41 lawyers (including those "of counsel") located in three different locations. The firm's main office is located at 40 Inverness Drive East in Arapahoe County. There are branch offices in Cody, Wyoming, Dallas, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. The firm also maintains an office in Washington, D.C., which is for Alan Simpson's use when he is in Washington, D.C. The firm does a variety of work, including insurance law, class actions, mass torts, pharmaceutical tort litigation, construction law and corporate, real estate and transactional law. Burg Simpson also has provided representation in cases involving counselor or mental health therapist liability, oil and gas and natural resources, personal injury, professional malpractice, securities litigation, and other areas of civil law. Additionally, the firm regularly works large cases on referral, co-counseling with solo practitioners and small firms who would like to associate with an experienced, large firm.

The firm is known for having a commercial litigation practice, with both plaintiff and defendant clients. The firm started out in 1976, when Mike left the firm he had been with to practice law with a friend. It didn't work out, and Mike was in what seemed then to be a precarious situation, with a family to support, a wife and a baby on the way. Thanks to his own hard work and the support of mentors, Mike was able to launch what has evolved to be a highly successful practice. Mike believes that "no one gets ahead without the help of other lawyers." He is grateful to many other attorneys for his success, including Jerry Dunn, Joe Branney and Bill Steele. He credits University of Denver Law Professor Thompson Marsh as teaching him "more about being a trial lawyer than anyone else."

A 1975 graduate of the University of Denver College of Law, Mike, who is five years older than Peter, came to Colorado for undergraduate school at the University of Denver. It's a familiar story - boy meets Colorado, boy falls in love with Colorado. During his senior year of undergraduate school, he had been accepted to law school at Cornell University and Georgetown University. He had lunch with Judge Bill Doyle, then on the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and sought Judge Doyle's advice. That advice was that, if Mike intended to practice in Denver, he really should go to the University of Denver College of Law, not Cornell or Georgetown. Mike took his advice, and has been here for 35 years.

Peter visited his brother Mike in Colorado, and decided that he, too, would attend the University of Denver College of Law. Peter attended Pomona College, Claremont, California, and then transferred to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he completed undergraduate school. After Peter finished at the University of Denver College of Law, he practiced at Wood Ris and Hames PC before joining his brother in the practice of law. He was persuaded to join his brother Mike when non-Burg partners in the firm convinced him that he would love practicing law with them. They were right. The brothers both love their profession and are grateful for the privilege of practicing law. They think the practice of law, while a serious endeavor, is fun. Peter says that, even though there were five years between him and Mike, "we were great pals" as children, and the same has been true in practicing their profession.

Mike focuses his practice on large, complex litigation, including commercial cases, professional malpractice, catastrophic injuries and mass tort litigation. He has tried more than 150 cases to juries. He has successfully obtained numerous jury verdicts in excess of $1 million each, including two verdicts of more than $5 million. Mike is a frequent lecturer in the Denver community and has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver College of Law. He is an advocate of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He also has served as a participating faculty member of the American Board of Trial Advocates Masters in Trial Program in Denver, Nashville, Des Moines and Kansas City.

Peter has developed a national reputation as a trial lawyer handling cases in construction, product liability, insurance-related matters, personal injury and mass tort litigation. He has represented insurance carriers and commercial clients in bad faith litigation and other defense matters. He is a past president of the Rocky Mountain Property Claims Association, and is a member of the Faculty of Federal Advocates. Peter is a recipient of the Edward M. Sait Prize in Government for being the outstanding student in government when he was at Pomona College.

The Burg brothers met Senator Simpson through two cases that involved natural gas explosions. Mike had been one of the lead counsels on a case in Steamboat Springs (the Steamboat explosion was in 1992 and the eventual trial was in approximately 1994). The Steamboat case, in which the plaintiffs prevailed, sparked considerable media interest, including a two-part television news series by Channel 9 in Denver. When there was an explosion in Cody, Wyoming, in 1994, the Simpson firm, which included Alan Simpson's two sons, was retained to pursue the case. The Simpson attorneys had an opportunity to view the Channel 9 series. They contacted Mike, and ended up joining forces with the Burg law firm to pursue the natural gas explosion case. After the case was successfully concluded, with a $5.8 million verdict for the plaintiffs, Bill Simpson wrote a letter in which he said that the case had renewed his commitment as a trial attorney.

Mike Burg and Bill Simpson agreed that they wanted to work together. There were discussions between the two firms, including the two Burg brothers and the two Simpson brothers. At the time, Alan Simpson was teaching at the Kennedy Institute for Government at Harvard University. He was being pursued by a number of big firms in Washington, D.C. and New York. Mike recalls that Senator Simpson did not want to go to a firm where he would be "selling his influence" or where he would be competing with the Simpson firm. There was a meeting. Alan Simpson said that his kids wanted to combine their resources with the Burg firm. They all decided to do it. It has been a successful marriage of two highly successful firms. As Peter puts it, any deal, including their partnership, "is only as good as the people." The Burgs believe that the people in their "deal" are exceptional, including the partners at both firms.

Alan Simpson is not only a former United States Senator, but he is also a founder of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association. Alan's father, Milwood Simpson, was governor of Wyoming and also served as a United States Senator from Wyoming.

Peter and Mike are both family men. Mike has two children and two stepchildren that he regards as "my own." Mike's children and stepchildren children are 35, 30, 25 and 23 years old. A son is thinking about going to law school. A daughter works at the firm and is considering going to nursing school. A son is a lieutenant commander in the Navy. Another son was a college football player and now works in finance. Mike's wife, whose professional name is Kathryn Christopher, is an actress who has starred in various movies, television shows and commercials. Mike himself has some experience with acting. He did stand-up comedy at the Comedy Works at one time and took acting lessons, both of which he believes have helped him in practicing law.

Peter has two children, who are 15 and 13, and students at Cherry Creek High School and Campus Middle School. Peter's wife, Sandy, was a paralegal who he met prior to the time he joined his brother's firm.

There is a third brother, Frank, who lives in the Chicago area, where Peter and Mike grew up. Frank is also in a law-related field, serving as a consultant and expert witness in regard to safety and health issues. The three Burg brothers grew up in Willmette, Illinois, which is a northern suburb of Chicago. Their parents now live here. Their dad is 90 years old and their mom is 83. Their parents still live on their own. Peter and Mike are close to their parents and happy that they came to Colorado.

When associates at Burg Simpson gather, they all jokingly talk about the "single blade of grass" story that Mike tells. The story is that, when Mike first started out in 1976, during difficult times when he was trying to figure out how he would support his wife and child and make a living, he was just "a single blade of grass." Through hard work, dedication, doing the right thing, and the help of other attorneys, that single blade of grass has grown, first to a yard, then to a meadow, then to a football field. Now, they're working on being a golf course. While Mike loves to tell the story, the brothers say they never really intended to grow. Their goal was to practice law, have a good time, and do the right thing. The growth was a by-product.

Among the pithy sayings that the brothers have (and that all their associates have heard many times) are:

• "The journey matters." The meaning is that the process is more important than the end result.
• "The harder you work, the luckier you get." This quote is credited to the brothers' father
• "The law is that which is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained." This quote comes from Thompson Marsh.
• "No ego. No fear." This is the firm mantra, and is credited to their partner, Scott Eldredge.

Mike and Peter both think that it is very important for all attorneys to figure out what their dreams are and to follow them. They believe being an attorney is wonderful. They encourage their associates to excel in all aspects of law, "including reaching out to the community." It is their belief that, by reaching out to the community, a firm will get work. The Burgs believe that no one "does more for the public good than lawyers" and they don't like lawyer jokes.

"There are sometimes that we, as attorneys, can be part of an incredible process where justice is served," Mike says. "It's a humbling experience."

Article has been reprinted with permission of the Arapahoe County Bar Association