| Melissa Hart |
Governor John Hickenlooper appointed Justice Melissa Hart to serve on the Colorado Supreme Court in 2017. An active member of the Colorado legal community, she is the court’s liaison to the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, the Pathways to Access Standing Committee, the Standing Committee on Family Issues, the Court Services Division of the State Court Administrator’s Office, and the Ralph Carr Judicial Learning Center. Justice Hart also serves as a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation Board. She was a founding Board member of Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice (Colorado’s affordable law practice incubator) and of the Sonia Sotomayor Inn of Court. In addition to her role at the court, Justice Hart is an adjunct professor at both the University of Colorado Law School and the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Hart was a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, where she directed the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law. Throughout her years as a professor, Justice Hart maintained an active pro bono practice, writing amicus briefs in appellate courts and representing clients through Metro Volunteer Lawyers. Her teaching and scholarship focused on access to justice, constitutional law, judicial decision making, legal ethics, employment discrimination, and civil procedure.
Justice Hart grew up in Denver, graduating from East High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard-Radcliffe College, spent a year teaching at a high school in Athens, Greece, then returned to Harvard for law school. At Harvard Law, she was the Articles Editor for the Harvard Law Review and Book Review Editor for the Harvard Women’s Law Journal. After graduating in 1995, she clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court. Following her clerkships, she practiced law for several years in Washington, D.C., including as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Justice Hart and her husband, Kevin Traskos, have two children and two dogs.
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Phone: 720-625-5430
2 E. 14th Avenue
Denver CO 80203
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