A new judge was sworn in on Monday, Nov. 9 on the Pitkin County Courthouse steps.
While Chris Seldin will officially become a judge in the 9th Judicial District Court today, the passing of the torch from his predecessor began more than a week ago. The 44-year-old former Pitkin County Assistant Attorney has been absorbing as much as he can from Gail Nichols.
She retired last month after seven years on the bench, overseeing criminal and civil matters.
“Gail probably more than anyone has really helped me get my bearings and get a sense of what I need to do in order to hit the ground running on November 9th because I have every expectation that I will indeed need to hit the ground running,” he said at her retirement party.
Seldin attended the low-key retirement party for Nichols. It was held in the district courtroom on the third floor of the courthouse. Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, civil litigators and law enforcement officials filled the galley. Nichols told them they are in good hands.
“Soon-to-be-judge Chris Seldin is going to be excellent. It really makes me feel good to know someone is going to come behind that can especially work through the civil cases that I was a little slow on,” she said to the crowd.
Nichols did have decades of criminal law experience when she took the bench, and that’s where Seldin is catching up now, even though the criminal docket is only a fraction of the caseload in Pitkin County District Court.
“I’ve been dealing with the reality of this significant change that’s coming by just throwing myself at the law I need to learn in order to practice competently as a judge in areas that I haven’t handled before — principally the criminal area will be a new area for me, the domestic relations area will be a new area for me and I’ve got some big big books that I am plowing my way through,” he said.
Seldin has been a civil practitioner most of his career, focusing a lot on family law and litigation. It wasn’t until he got to the Pitkin County Attorney’s Office in 2002 that he delved into land use and other civil matters.
Some of the first civil land-use cases Seldin worked on were ensuring public access in the Hunter Creek Valley and Smuggler Mountain. He took the lead in fighting to prevent oil and gas drilling in the Thompson Divide — an issue that unified not only governments throughout the valley but residents as well.
In an interview with Aspen Public Radio last week, Seldin said he didn’t have an expectation to be in county government for 13-plus years but the work was so rewarding it just happened organically.
“I didn’t know long it would last and what ended up happening is just year after year, case after case, all these really interesting from a legal perspective and also from a community’s perspective cases kept heading my way,” he said.
The job pretty much landed in his lap, too. How the Durango native got here from working at a big law firm in San Francisco was happenstance. A friend had applied, interviewed and was offered the assistant county attorney job but turned it down for personal reasons. Seldin seized the opportunity.
“When he told me he was going to stick around in the city, I said ‘well, maybe I will send them my resume. So ya, it was just a month or so later that I was packing my bags to move out here,” he said.
Another attraction was, “of course it was appealing that the office was four blocks from gondola.”
Seldin has aspired to be a judge ever since he clerked for Judge Gregory J. Hobbs of the Colorado Supreme Court after law school.
Judging in the 9th Judicial District means a massive workload. Seldin will take on hundreds of active lawsuits and cases. He says he’s ready for it; as an attorney he has worked around the clock during trials.
So as the torch is passed, so does the number of ski days the two judges will log this year. The one in retirement, who is married to a former ski instructor, plans to be on the hill more. As for Seldin, who telemarks, he’s thinking, “the most I’d be able to make use of now is a one-day-a-week ski pass.”
And maybe not even that if he plans on living up to Nichols’ legacy on the bench. Again, Seldin speaking on her final day.
“People have suggested that I have big shoes to fill and I … my response has been ‘there is no filling Gail Nichols’ shoes. There’s walking behind in the trail she set and it’s my great fortune to follow in her wake,” he said.
Chief Judge James Boyd of the 9th Judicial District will swear Seldin in at 12:15 p.m. on Monday. Gail Nichols will place the ceremonial robe on her successor. Carolyn Sackariason, Aspen Public Radio news.