Marcos Beaton, Jr, the firm’s founding member, has a decorated background as a trial lawyer and advocate. He has consistently been recognized by his peers, including recognition as a Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, recognition as a “Best Lawyers in America” by Best Lawyers Magazine, recognition as a “Best Lawyers in South Florida” as published in the Wall Street Journal, recognition as a “Top 10 Attorneys in Florida” by SuperLawyers magazine in 2021.

Marcos doesn’t just practice law as a trial lawyer and advocate — he teaches it. Marcos has been an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law since 2011, where he co-teaches a trial intensive class with his former law partner, Roy Black. Marcos has also taught trial skills at the National Criminal Defense College, which runs perhaps the nations most prestigious and intensive trial skills programs for criminal defense lawyers. Marcos has also served as the President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers — Miami Chapter.

Marcos has dozens of jury trials and thousands of courtroom hours in both state and federal courts. He has handled complex criminal cases in both federal and state courts.  His clients have included doctors, lawyers and successful business professionals.  His cases have included misdemeanor cases where professional licenses are on the line all the way up to highly complex securities fraud cases, complex tax cases, racketeering cases, and even first degree murder.  He has tried multi-week and multi-month cases in both federal and state court and has participated in many exhaustive, internal, pre-indictment and pre-arraignment investigations. Marcos has experience in matters involving highly regulated industries, and is able to assist clients in regulatory investigations. Marcos also has experience in university disciplinary proceedings, and is also able to assist clients in matters where university students face discipline over allegations of misconduct.

With experience in more than 100 jury trials, David Beller specializes in criminal defense litigation, attorney and judicial discipline, and the collateral consequences that accompany a criminal allegation. He represents individuals and organizations involved as targets, subjects, or witnesses in state and federal criminal investigations and related grand jury and pretrial proceedings.

David brings a depth of experience in managing crisis level regulatory and criminal matters, as well as in advising clients on how to structure compliance programs so as to help avoid such problems. David’s experience includes the most thorough and sophisticated representation in all state level misdemeanor and felony allegations from DUIs to homicide.

He has defended actions throughout Colorado and worked opposite both municipal and state prosecutors, Colorado Attorney General, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Department of Human & Health Services (TRAILS), Office of Attorney Regulation, Judicial discipline, university disciplinary boards, SEC, Department of Justice, and United States Attorney’s Offices for the Districts of Colorado and the Eastern District of California. His litigation skills have also been called on to assist in the representation and support of firm clients in complex civil and regulatory actions.

Prior to joining Recht Kornfeld, P.C., David was a Colorado State Public Defender. He is a Colorado native and attended school in Fort Collins, earning a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science in 1999, and his Juris Doctor in Ohio in 2004. In 2007 David joined Recht Kornfeld, PC and was made a Partner in 2012.

David served as President of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, proudly serving 1000 criminal defense lawyers, paralegals and investigators. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Denver College of Law and at Metropolitan State University. He is a faculty member of Colorado Alternate Defense Counsel, teaching trial skills to Colorado criminal defense lawyers. He serves by appointment of the Denver Presiding Judge as a Commissioner of the Office of Municipal Public Defender and was appointed by the Colorado Supreme Court to serve on the Committee for Character and Fitness. As a legal analyst, David has been consulted and quoted by The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, The Boston Globe, The Denver Post and local news affiliates, amongst others. David is also a published author, coauthoring 2015’s Colorado DUI Defense Manual, published by Circuit Media.

Since starting his legal career, David has consistently been recognized as one of Denver’s premier attorneys. In 2007, he was named by Law Week Magazine as one of Denver’s Top 20 Up and Coming Lawyers. He has been named one of Denver’s best criminal defense lawyers in each of the 2009-2020 editions of Super Lawyers Magazine and 5280 Magazine named him a Denver Top Lawyer every year since 2017. David has been named by The National Trial Lawyers as one of Colorado’s top 40 trial lawyers under the age of 40. In 2014, they named him as one of the 100 best trial lawyers in the nation. In March 2015, the Denver Business Journal named David amongst Denver’s Top 40 business leaders under the age of 40.

Cathleen L. Bennett recently moved to Anchorage, Alaska from Boston, Massachusetts where she was a public defender with the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the Massachusetts Statewide Public Defender) for 30 years. She was the Criminal Defense Training Director at CPCS for 17 years. As a trial lawyer in the CPCS Public Defender Division, she defended clients charged with murder and other serious felonies. She now works as a training consultant for the National Association for Public Defense and for Gideon’s Promise, and she intends to accept appointments to represent criminally accused people in the Alaska Courts soon.

Cathy is on the faculty and the Board of Trustees of the National Criminal Defense College. She is a Core Faculty member of Gideon’s Promise (formerly the Southern Public Defender Training Center), which was the subject of the award winning HBO documentary “Gideon’s Army,” and she has taught for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers  and criminal defense training programs across the country.

She received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in 2007, the Scholar-Mentor Award from Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE) in 2008, the Outstanding Faculty Award in 2011 and the Stephen B. Bright Award in 2018 from Gideon’s Promise, and the Gideon Award from the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 2017.

Ali Bloomquist has been a trial lawyer since 2005, representing clients in serious criminal cases throughout New England. A public defender by training and conviction, Ali continues to try cases in Connecticut as a Special Public Defender and previously served as Director of Training and Education for the Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services. Her work integrates trial practice with scholarship on race, equity, and the culture of public defense. Ali has been on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College since 2014 and teaches at state and national defender programs across the country.

MELODY BRANNON is the Federal Public Defender for the District of Kansas. She has been with the FPD for 26 years and served the last ten years as Defender. She began her career as a public defender in the Oklahoma County Public Defender Office in 1990 and worked in death penalty defense at both trial and habeas levels in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. As Federal Defender, she has implemented a holistic defense paradigm and created extensive CLE, mentoring, and internship programs. She is on the board and faculty of the National College of Criminal Defense and the Defender Chair of Defender Services Advisory Group.

Jennifer Buyske, LCDR U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAGC), earned her J.D., with honors, at Gonzaga University School of Law in 2010. She is licensed in the States of Montana and Connecticut, and was commissioned in the United States Navy in 2010. As a defense counsel within the JAGC, Jen has tried numerous cases to verdict. In her 12 years of service, she has been stationed in Guam, Florida, and Connecticut. She now does habeas corpus and criminal defense practice in CT and serves as a JAG Reservist. Jen has been invited to teach all across the country, including CO, MA, CT, WA, as well as for the JAGC. She currently lives in West Hartford, with her wife and three kids.